Report berates poor use of EU fund for former Dell staff

A DAMNING report from a group of MEPs on the handling of €23 million from the EU to help former Dell workers paints a picture of incompetence and complete inefficiency.

Members of the Employment and Social Affairs Committee that recommended the pay-out for the Irish workers visited Limerick and Dublin to see how the fund was being used.

Their 10-page report warns that the money is in danger of not achieving its objective of finding employment for the 2,000 former Dell employees through either reskilling or helping them set up businesses.

The report cites a litany of missed opportunities, lack of planning and decision-making by government and state bodies, delays, misunderstandings and bad advice.

The five committee members found that of the 1,300 people with the lowest skills, only 400 were targeted for the kind of reskilling they would need to get a job.

Many of them were offered third-level courses which would be of little or no use to them. Some were frightened off applying initially because they were told they would lose their social welfare benefits.

Others were told they were not eligible because they had already begun courses or started up their own businesses when the final papers had to be signed to avail of the funding.

The MEPs – three of whom were Irish including Proinsias De Rossa, Marian Harkin and Joe Higgins – were critical of the fact that the workers themselves, the trade unions and bodies that had relevant expertise such as the Mid West Task Force were not involved in the application for the funding or in its delivery for some time afterwards.

Government officials admitted to them that they found it difficult to even identify eligible workers. Communication with the workers was poor and this bred mistrust and misunderstandings, the MEPs said.

After a time the workers formed their own organisation but felt they were being excluded from decisions being made on their behalf, many of which they felt were not needed or wanted.

The report found that the Irish system was incapable of responding flexibly to the fund – which has quite broad guidelines for its use – and this was compounded by the Government delay of 18 months before measures got under way.

Labour MEP Alan Kelly, met the committee during their visit.

“State agencies seemed to consider the money as theirs and rather than ask workers what they wanted, they made the decisions in advance. This can no longer continue,” he said.