Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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12. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way in which workers of a company (details supplied) can access the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29923/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) assists Member States to provide active labour market supports for workers who are made redundant due to globalisation or a global economic and financial crisis. Eligible redundancy situations are those involving at least 500 redundancies in a specific company (including suppliers/downstream producers) in a 4 month period, or at least 500 redundancies in a specific sector in a 9 month period. Applications for co-financing from the EGF are made by individual Member States and redundancies occurring in sites in other Member States cannot be aggregated to meet the eligibility criteria.

However, in exceptional circumstances applications can be considered where these criteria are not entirely met. In such cases a Member State is required to substantiate that exceptional circumstances pertain and that the redundancies have a serious impact on employment and the local, regional or national economy. These exceptional circumstances cases cannot exceed 15% of the annual maximum amount of EGF funding.

The EGF Managing Authority in my Department is currently assessing the circumstances pertaining to the proposed redundancies in question to ascertain whether the making of an EGF application is a feasible option. This assessment will address the circumstances leading to the redundancies and the extent to which exceptional circumstances pertain.