Dell staff likely to qualify for EU grant
The Government has been in touch with employment and social affairs officials in Brussels about tapping into the special €500 million fund.
Commission sources said they are waiting to receive an official application from the Government, and they believed it would meet all the necessary criteria.
However the Government would have to match any money available from the EU’s globalisation fund and it would have to be spent on new jobs, training and upskilling.
The funding can last for up to 12 months and would be available also for workers laid off in supplier businesses affected by the Dell cutbacks.
The Government must first submit an action plan to help the workers affected including how much money they needed to put it into affect.
It would have to be approved by the member states and the European Parliament before the money could be paid out.
South MEP Colm Burke said: “The fund has been set up to tackle such a crisis caused by multinationals abandoning a particular member state for cheaper locations. The €500m in the fund is earmarked precisely to tackle a crisis like that in Limerick.
“I understand the European Commission is favourably disposed towards this and the government should lose no time in applying.”
A commission spokes- person said there have already been preliminary talks between officials and the Irish authorities: “If they decide to submit an application we will ensure it is processed and presented to the European Parliament and the Council as speedily as possible, as long as the relevant criteria are fulfilled.”
Set up two years ago, the globalisation fund has paid out more than €70m to aid more than 15,000 redundant workers in eight states which have lost out to lower-cost economies.
The biggest single pay out was of E35 million to help 6,000 textile workers in Italy laid off because of competition from cheap imports from China.
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