Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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Question 63: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the way the moneys from the EU Globalisation Fund will be allocated; the location at which former employees of a company (details supplied) should apply for assistance under this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35168/09]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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An application for assistance from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for workers made redundant at the DELL plant in Raheen, Co. Limerick, and in ancillary enterprises, was made by my Department on 19 June 2009. In September 2009 the European Commission approved the application. However, it remains to be agreed also by the European Council and the European Parliament. A decision by both bodies is expected later this year. In the interim FÁS and other relevant bodies such as Enterprise Ireland, City and County Enterprise Boards and the local Vocational Education Committees continue to make their full range of employment, training, guidance and advisory services available to the redundant workers concerned.

A working group comprised of these bodies, IDA Ireland, the Higher Education Authority and relevant third level education institutions, in consultation with my Department and the Departments of Education and Science and Social and Family Affairs, is currently considering the most appropriate mechanisms for the deployment of the anticipated support from the EGF. Contact can be made with the relevant organisations either directly or through the dedicated Tús Nua website (www.tusnua.ie) put in place through a collaborative initiative between various State agencies and regionally located educational institutions in the Mid West to assist redundant workers in assessing their options for alternative employment and further training or education.

Those redundant workers considered eligible for support from the EGF will be contacted in the coming weeks with an outline of the services that will be made available in order to elicit which particular training, entrepreneurial or educational opportunities they may be interested in.