Almost 50% EU retraining fund to be returned

THE Government will have to hand back nearly half of the almost €40 million it has been offered by the EU to retrain thousands of redundant workers.

The Department of Education had been approved to spend up to €38.22m on courses and assisting former workers at Dell in Limerick, Waterford Crystal and SR Technics in Dublin up to this month. But low uptake on training programmes mean it has only paid out €9.4m.

The fund is separate from the €35m allocated for ex-construction workers.