Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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249. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he will take to seek funding under the terms of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund to provide training grants and upskilling to 87 employees of a company (details supplied); if same can be applied for now without delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22196/16]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The EGF Managing Authority in the Department has considered the known facts of this case including the collective redundancy notification issued by the company to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. On the basis of this information, these redundancies do not meet a number of intrinsic requirements, including the scope and intervention criteria, of Regulation (EU) No. 1309/2013 which governs the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). Rather than the redundancies occurring as a result of adverse globalisation impacts, the reason being cited by the company for these redundancies is a direct consequence of the bringing into force of EU legislation, namely the EU Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU. The European Commission has been consulted by the Department and has confirmed that this rationale does not constitute eligible grounds for the making of an EGF application.

While EGF co-financing was granted in 2013 in support of several hundred workers made redundant in the tobacco industry in another EU Member State, the circumstances of that case were materially different and are not comparable to the Irish case in question.

In this context, the Department considers that a feasible application for EGF co-financing support cannot be made in this case.