Five hundred jobs are expected to be created in Europe's first third-level centre of excellence for franchise development, in Limerick.

WHEN it comes to job variety, Limerick man William O’Brien has had a broad career which has spanned training race horses to dealing in discarded women’s fashion.

ENTREPRENEURIAL activity is expected to “flourish” across the mid-west region in the coming years, but up to 80% of start-up companies will fail within their first five years of trading, unless they have the right experience mix, it has been warned.

EUROPE’S first third-level centre for franchise development is to be established at the Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT).

THE head of a top European Parliament employment committee said yesterday she was surprised at the level of bureaucracy adopted by Irish state agencies in the dispersal of €22.8 million from the European Globalisation Fund (EGF).

A delegation of MEPs has met with representatives of former Dell workers in Limerick.

NEARLY 60% of former Dell staff, and hundreds more workers from service supply companies who also lost their jobs when the computer giant relocated to Poland, have reacted positively to an innovative EU support fund aimed at retraining and upskilling.

MEP Alan Kelly, who was to the fore in forcing the EU Commission to approve the European Globalisation Fund (EGF) to assist workers hit by the Dell pull-out, remains very unhappy at the way the fund has being managed in this country.

A WHOLE raft of courses have been opened up with funding from the European Globalisation Fund.

FORMER Dell workers were warned that the millions of euro allocated to help them return to work should not be regarded as winning the Lottery.

Irish MEPs stepped up pressure on the European Commission today to explain why Brussels approved funding of more than €50m to help US computer giant Dell close its Limerick plant and move to Poland.

WORKERS at the doomed Dell plant in Limerick said yesterday they want to have a say on how the EU-backed retraining fund announced by EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is used.

A €15 MILLION fund to help 2,400 redundant Dell and Banta Turnkey employees get back to work will be announced by the President of the European Commission when he visits Limerick today.

The Government has applied to the EU for €20m in funding to support the 1,900 Dell workers made redundant in Limerick.

EACH of the 2,000 Dell workers in Limerick who will lose their jobs before the end of the year could be in line for payments of about €6,000 each from the European Globalisation Fund.