Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the recommendation from the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs relating to the European Globalisation Fund. In the past, the European Globalisation Fund has been used for companies where there were redundancies of more than 500 people. The committee recommends that number be brought down to accommodate companies where 200 employees or more are made redundant.

The European Globalisation Fund has given a great start to companies like Dell, Andersen Ireland and Waterford Crystal in the past. Those companies availed of this fund and upskilled, retrained, rebranded and recreated jobs. Thankfully, Ireland is creating more jobs than it is losing, but it is reassuring to know this recommendation is being put in place to reduce the number of employees made redundant before there is access to this fund. If there were to be redundancies in any company, there is a fund to which they could apply to upskill, retrain and give a fresh start to employees. This is welcome news.