Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 202: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount that has not been spent from the money allocated to the SR Technics EU Globalisation Fund; the amount of the remaining money that is uncommitted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15079/11]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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In December 2010 the European Commission approved the Irish application for European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) co-financing assistance in support of workers made redundant at the S R Technics aircraft maintenance facility at Dublin Airport in 2009. The EGF application was for a total of €11.46m, of which the approved EU contribution is €7.45m. Funding for the EGF programme measures is provided by my Department to relevant intermediate bodies and service providers who facilitate the delivery of the guidance, training, educational and enterprise supports as set out in the approved European Commission decision on the EGF application. Relevant service providers such as FÁS, City and County Enterprise Boards (CEBs), Vocational and Education Committees (VECs) and higher education institutions and colleges have, since March 2009, provided the former SR Technics workers with a range of occupational guidance, training, educational opportunities and enterprise supports. To date these supports include the provision of:- Almost 850 FÁS training places and a specialist FÁS redundant aircraft mechanic apprentice training programme in conjunction with the Department of Defence and Air Corps Over 140 places higher education supports including almost 100 full-time courses as well as customised VEC courses CEBs guidance and mentoring supports to almost 100 workers and grant support to 33 workers Ireland is required to use the EGF financial contribution received from the EU budgetary authorities before 9 October 2011 and must send its final report for the execution of the financial contribution to the European Commission not later than 9 March 2012. The full range of EGF co-financed services will continue to be provided to eligible participants until the EGF implementation period expires on 9 October 2011. In this context, it is not yet possible to provide a detailed breakdown of expenditure on the EGF programme in advance while new or additional claims from various service providers are still awaited or are being processed and any relevant reconciliations between national and EU funding still need to be assessed and verified. However, on foot of claims received from a certain number of these providers, my Department has paid out a total of €538,626 to date for enterprise supports and third level programmes under the SR Technics EGF programme. Further, the Department last week contracted with WRCsec consultants for administrative and technical support services in the preparation of the S R Technics EGF programme final report. Their work will focus on delivering the reporting requirements, inter alia, for financial and management information data across all service providers.