Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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86. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if, under EU regulations, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, EGF can be used only in circumstances in which more than 500 persons are made redundant by a single company, including its suppliers and downstream producers: the reference in the regulations to the criteria that must be met when redundancies occur to draw down funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22630/17]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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87. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the eligibility criteria under EU regulation when a business fails for securing EGF funding for the self-employed who employ not more than ten persons. [22631/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 86 and 87 together.

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) is an EU co-funding instrument to assist workers made redundant as a result of globalisation or due to a global financial and economic crisis. 

To be eligible for assistance there must be 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.  Company specific EGF applications can include self-employed persons whose activity has ceased and who employed not more than 10 workers, provided that it can be demonstrated that their activity was dependent on the specific company concerned (i.e. they were a supplier or downstream producer of the company). Sectoral EGF applications can include self-employed persons who were operating in the relevant economic sector.

In small labour markets or in exceptional circumstances, applications can be made where the minimum threshold number of redundancies is not entirely met and the Member State can substantiate that there is a serious impact on employment and the local, regional or national economy.  Cases approved on exceptional circumstances grounds cannot exceed 15% of the total EGF annual budget of €150m.  A number of Irish EGF applications have been approved on  exceptional circumstances grounds.

Applications for EGF assistance must be made by Member States within 12 weeks of the threshold number of redundancies being met and must establish the link between the redundancies and globalisation or a global financial and economic crisis.