Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 131: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the State will be making an application to the globalisation fund arising from recent announcements by a company (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13378/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Funding is available from the European Globalisation Fund (EGF) for the retraining of workers in EU Member States made redundant as a result of changing global trade patterns. A minimum threshold of at least 1,000 redundancies applies for a given enterprise and its suppliers. This threshold must be reached within a 4 month period. In order for an application for assistance from the EGF to be eligible, formal notification of redundancies must issue to the 1,000 workers affected.

With regard to the 1,900 redundancies recently announced by DELL at its Limerick plant, formal notification of redundancy has only issued in a small number of cases and well below the 1,000 threshold. Accordingly, no application for assistance from the EGF can be advanced at this time in respect of DELL or those that arise as a consequence of the redundancies at the DELL plant. Once redundancy notices have been received by at least 1,000 workers, and other relevant eligibility criteria have been met, a period of ten weeks is available within which an application to the EGF can be made. That application will then be made without any delay.