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Twitter has confirmed 140 redundancies at their European headquarters in Dublin.

Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Leo Varadkar said those affected would "receive a lot of government help".

Speaking at Fine Gael's ard fheis (annual conference) in Athlone, County Westmeath he added: "My thoughts are with the staff who are affected, which is just over a third of the staff in Dublin."

He declined to comment on further possible job losses, saying "there haven't been any suggestions, at this stage, that there will be any more".

The news comes after Twitter temporarily closed its office in Dublin, and in locations around the world, sparking new concerns about the site's ability to stay online.

The microblogging website has been plagued with controversy following Elon Musk's $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover on 27 October.

The following week he announced half of Twitter's 7,500 staff worldwide were being let go.

Mr Musk said he had "no choice" over the cuts as the company was losing $4m (£3.51m) a day.

He made headlines again this week after sending an e-mail to all employees, demanding they commit to a "hardcore" culture of working "long hours at high intensity" or leave the company.

Those who did not sign up would be given three months' severance pay, Mr Musk said.

Company offices were then abruptly closed on 17 November.

The hashtag "RIPTwitter" is trending with many speculating on the website's future, seemingly to the enjoyment of Mr Musk who tweeted a meme of a gravestone with the Twitter logo on it.

Irish governmental departments regularly use the website to communicate with the public.

When asked if alternative arrangements were being considered, Mr Varadakr said "speculating about the demise of Twitter is a bit premature".

"We're not dependant on it by any means to get our message across," he added.