Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 446: To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he will act immediately to save the 300 jobs at a company (details supplied) under the job retention schemes. [18386/12]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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On the 22 March last, Vodafone Ireland announced that it had completed a review of the company's current contracted mobile call centre operations. The company has stated that it will be adopting a new model for its mobile customer care, resulting in a move to a new provider, Teleperformance. As part of the changes, 27 Vodafone roles and 290 contract roles currently provided by Rigney Dolphin will transfer to Teleperformance.@

I have been in contact with Vodafone Ireland and the company has advised that it envisages that all of Rigney Dolphin staff based in Vodafone will transfer as employees to Teleperformance and that the transfer will observe the Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employees (European Communities (Protection of Employees on Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations 2003) Regulations.

Vodafone Ireland and Rigney Dolphin have now entered a six-week consultation process with employee representatives prior to the new arrangements taking effect. Therefore, it would be inappropriate of me to comment further on the matter at this point. The State's industrial relations machinery, including the Labour Relations Commission, is available to assist in the process, if required.

In relation to job retention schemes, the Employment Subsidy Scheme (Temporary) was introduced in December 2008, to help employees maintain their jobs while at the same time assisting employers to retain their productive capacity. The European Commission approved the introduction of the scheme under the "Temporary framework for State Aid measures to support access to finance in the current financial and economic crisis". The Framework was brought in on a temporary basis to allow Member States increased flexibility to assist companies in the real economy that were facing difficulties in accessing finance as a result of the economic downturn. This temporary framework was limited to a two-year period and it expired at the end of 2010.