As I indicated to the House last week, in response to a question from Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, considerable progress was made in relation to the application by my Department to the European Commission for readaptation aid for former Irish Steel workers made redundant due to the restructuring plan in 1994.
I am now pleased to inform the House that a significant improvement on the readaptation aid package, originally approved by the Commission in December 1995, has been secured and formal European Commission approval was received late last week. This new package represents a significant improvement in terms of the number of eligible workers, the amount of aid available and the payment conditions. Readaptation aid will now be available for 209 former workers, made redundant in 1994, 1995 and early 1996. The total funding available from the Commission will be 627,000 ECUs and this figure incorporates the 376,806 ECUs approved by the Commission in December 1995. Readaptation aid of 627,000 ECUs will result in payments of 3,000 ECUs per worker. I understand that the Commission will make the funding available to my Department within two to three months and the Deputy may rest assured that payments will be made by my Department to the eligible workers as quickly as possible on receipt of the readaptation aid from Brussels.
The Deputy refers to the provision of matching funding from the Government. As I previously indicated, the provision of additional matching funding does not arise in relation to the readaptation aid of 627,000 ECUs approved by the EU Commission for the Irish Steel workers made redundant in 1994, 1995 and early 1996. The extra statutory redundancy payments received by the workers constitutes the matching funding, and this has been accepted by the Commission. In 1985, the previous occasion readaptation aid was paid to former Irish Steel workers, the extra statutory redundancy payments received by them also constituted the matching funding.
As regards the Deputy's point about making further applications under other programmes for funding to assist the former Irish Steel workers, I am not aware of any other specific aid which might be available from the EU for the former Irish Steel workers. In any event, I understand that the average maximum aid available under Article 56.2(b) of the ECSC Treaty for workers made redundant is 3,000 ECUs per worker and, as I have mentioned above, this maximum amount has been secured for the former Irish Steel workers.