Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

The Senator will be delighted to know that I have to hand a most detailed answer to his Adjournment matter. I hope I will have time to read through it for him. I wish to take this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has to date submitted three applications for co-financing assistance from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, EGF, in 2009 towards the cost of guidance, training, entrepreneurship and education programmes for redundant workers at the Dell computer manufacturing plant in Raheen, County Limerick, the Waterford Crystal plant in Kilbarry, County Waterford, and the SR Technics aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Dublin Airport. While there have been significant numbers of redundancies nationally since the commencement of the global economic and financial crisis, strict eligibility criteria apply for a member state to submit an application for EGF assistance with a legitimate expectation of success.

EGF support is only considered in the following scenarios. The first is where major structural changes in world trade patterns have led to a serious economic disruption, such as a substantial increase in imports into the EU for a given sector, a rapid decline of EU market share in a given sector and delocalisation to third, that is, non-EU, countries. The second scenario is where redundancies can be directly attributed to the current global economic and financial crisis period. This provision only applies to the period up to the end of 2011. Generally there must have been at least 500 redundancies over a period of four months in the case of a single enterprise and its suppliers or downstream producers or at least 500 redundancies, particularly in small to medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, over a period of nine months in the case of a NACE 2 economic sector. The EU member state then has ten weeks within which to establish whether the threshold has been reached, collate the data required and submit a comprehensive application, including a rationale for EGF support. Robust data demonstrating contractual links between main enterprise and supplier and evidence of redundancy notifications of all workers concerned must be provided by any member state applying for EGF funds. It has been the experience of member states, including Ireland, that this is quite an onerous task that has considerable human resource and logistical implications.

In this context, on 19 June 2009 the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment submitted an application for co-funded assistance from the EGF towards the costs of a personalised package of occupational guidance, training, employment, entrepreneurship and educational measures for workers made redundant at the Dell plant in Raheen, County Limerick, and at ancillary enterprises. The application encompasses almost 3,000 persons. The application regarding the Dell redundancies was approved late last year by the EU budgetary authorities and a funds transfer of €14.8 million was received earlier this month, almost nine months since the submission of the original application. The Government is providing a matching element of €8 million in funding in respect of this application. The top quality and efficient delivery of services is of paramount importance. It is imperative that the various measures being provided are co-ordinated in the most effective and efficient manner to meet the needs of the affected workers in Limerick and the mid-west. To that end, FÁS has established a dedicated EGF co-ordination unit in Limerick to ensure all relevant supports across all service providers, namely, FÁS, Enterprise Ireland, county enterprise boards, vocational education committees, and third level and other institutions and colleges, are co-ordinated locally in a timely, effective and efficient manner. The EGF co-ordination unit acts as the primary co-ordination agency for the Department in the implementation of the EGF programme for Dell worker related supports. All other intermediate bodies and public beneficiaries liaise and report on measures to the FÁS EGF co-ordination unit as required.

Details of guidance, training, educational and entrepreneurial measures available with the assistance of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for those workers made redundant at the Dell plant in County Limerick and at ancillary enterprises since January 2009 were provided at the public information event hosted at the South Court Hotel, Limerick, on 11 and 12 February 2010 by the FÁS EGF co-ordination unit. FÁS alone received almost 600 expressions of interest in its training courses with 250 expressions in VEC-run courses. To date, FÁS has provided guidance to approximately 1,900 former Dell workers. The State training agency has provided approximately 300 training courses, with double that number to be provided in 2010. FÁS also is expanding its grant aid stream to ensure the provision of courses in private colleges where appropriate. Work also is progressing on the development of community employment and job internship schemes which will cater for several hundred people. The city and county enterprise boards are processing more than 200 applications for assistance to start one's own business in the mid-west with the support of the EGF. In addition, hundreds of people are expected to take up tailored and accelerated further and third level education courses in the region, including at appropriately accredited private colleges.

A steering committee has been established, including representatives of the former workforce, to ensure the most effective and efficient services are provided under the EGF. This committee is to meet in Limerick in early April and will provide a useful forum for the exchange of information and ideas on the roll-out of appropriate EGF-funded measures. As the timeframe for implementing all measures being co-financed by the EGF is 24 months from the date of submission of the EGF application, it is important to maximise the support potential within this relatively short timeframe. In this context, the effectiveness of all EGF-funded supports will be reviewed by the Department in June 2010. All EGF related expenditure must be strictly monitored to ensure it can traced back to an eligible occupational guidance, training, employment, entrepreneurship or educational measure, that there is a clear audit trail linking the expenditure to a single identifiable eligible beneficiary, and that all relevant EU and national accounting and auditing procedures are met by the intermediate bodies and public beneficiaries.

As for the Waterford Crystal application, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment submitted a second EGF application to the European Commission on 7 August 2009 in respect of approximately 653 workers at Waterford Crystal and ancillary companies for a total amount of just under €4 million. The Waterford Crystal application is at the interservice consultation stage within the European Commission and will, upon approval, be considered by the College of Commissioners, the European Council and the European Parliament. To date, FÁS has provided for one to one career guidance interviews with almost 500 of the workers and delivered in excess of 430 training places. Educational measures such as a joint FÁS-Waterford Institute of Technology certificate in study skills and an RPL initiative are well under way.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment submitted an EGF application to the European Commission on 9 October 2009 in respect of 1,135 workers at the SR Technics plant at Dublin Airport for a total of just over €13.5 million. A request for further information was received from the Commission in mid-January owing to unforeseen circumstances arising after the submission of the application. This request is being addressed and officials are engaged with their Brussels counterparts to ensure outstanding issues are resolved. In the interim, the delivery of services has continued. To date, FÁS has delivered training courses to more than 660 workers and 58 full-time third level education places have been taken up by former SR Technics workers at IT Blanchardstown and Tallaght.