Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

The application and administration of these funds is a shambles. The Minister confirmed that the 5,987 construction workers under whose name an application was made will be contacted by the Department next month.

This is 17 months after the application for specific tailor-made programmes to help them get back into work was made for them. These are early interventions yet they will only be informed 17 months after the application is made. That is a delay of seven months. The €35 million will be spent on their behalf. I know that is not solely the problem of the Labour Party or Fine Gael in that the previous Government administered this fund for the majority of that time but it is not right that this has happened. It happened with SR Technics, Dell and Waterford Crystal.

While the Minister may not have the detail at hand does he believe that significant portions of the funding drawn down for retraining for the persons who lost their jobs in those three companies will have to be sent back to Europe as a result of the criteria and the way it was administered by the previous Government, particularly that the money was not spent until the cheque landed with the Department? What is required under this fund, and what happens in other member states, is that the Government uses its national funds to apply early interventions in the form of tailor-made programmes but that has not happened. Can the Minister confirm whether his Department knows of the whereabouts of the 5,900 individuals on whose behalf this application has been made? On whom can this money be spent? I suggest it is nobody other than those individuals. Can the Minister confirm that?

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