Paudie Coffey (Fine Gael)

I have questions for the Minister of State. It was made clear to us that the EGF money was to be additional to existing funds. I hope it will not be used by the Government as a slush fund to prop up a discredited agency, namely, FÁS. That is my fear and that of many workers. Thousands of redundant workers could qualify under the fund, but no application has been made on their behalf by the Department. Had the Minister and the Department even bothered to make an effort to put the applications together, many would have been successful. According to the Minister of State, preparing an application is an onerous task. Whoop de doo, if it is onerous. Many redundant workers would love to have difficult work to do. It is not fair to tell the House that the applications should not be made just because doing so would be difficult. I ask the Government to apply on behalf of the many thousands of workers who have been made redundant by the companies to which I referred, including Teva, ABB, Honeywell, Bausch and Lomb, but no effort is being made to do so. The Department and the Government seem to have adopted a laissez-faire attitude to the EGF.