Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2012
188 Deputy Patrick Nulty asked the Minister for Education and Skills the position regarding the SR Technics European Globalisation Fund funding; the amount of funding that has been spent; if any funding was left unspent and returned to the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7979/12]
View answer200 Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will confirm the amount, date and to whom European Globalisation Adjustment Fund grants were disbursed to with regards to SR Technics by his EGF policy and operations. [7651/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 188 and 200 together.
On foot of an application made by the Irish authorities in October 2009 in support of workers made redundant in 2009 at the SR Technics aircraft maintenance facility at Dublin Airport, EU funding of €7.45m was subsequently received from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) in December 2010. Including required matching national funding, a total of €11.46m was available to fund active labour market measures including guidance, training, apprenticeship, further and higher education opportunities and enterprise supports, subject to demand and up-take.
The relevant EGF programme ended on 9 October 2011. The recent EGF review consultation document circulated by my Department in December 2011 estimated that in the region of 1,850 supports and interventions were provided to the redundant workers over the period of this EGF programme. These included grant aid for self-employment and business start ups from relevant City and County Enterprise boards and EGF training grants administered by FÁS.
Activity data and relevant management information is currently being gathered and collated from the relevant service providers by WRC Social and Economic Consultants Ltd., who are contracted to deliver certain administrative and technical support services to EGF funded programmes in Ireland, including in respect of the closure of the SR Technics programme.
To date, on the basis of claims received, the Department has paid some €1,300,073 on EGF programme measures pertaining to the SR Technics workers. A number of additional claims are currently being processed by my Department or are awaited in the context of the ongoing verification and certification process.
A Final Report and statement justifying expenditure is being prepared by my Department and is required to be submitted to the European Commission by 9 April 2012. Until the Final Report and accompanying statement are prepared and submitted and considered and duly responded to by the European Commission, it is not possible to state how much funding will be required to be reimbursed to the EU. However, it is anticipated that total expenditure on this programme will be significantly lower than the total funding available.
