Vol. 496 No. 3
94 Mrs. Owen asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will establish whether a commitment given to retrain former employees of Irish Steel at the time of the take over by Ispat has been fulfilled; the funds, if any, her Department or the Government has made available for this retraining; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22544/98]
I am unaware of any commitment given to retrain former employees of the former Irish Steel Limited.
Following the 1994 Irish Steel Limited restructuring plan, an application was made by my Department to the European Commission for ECSC retraining aid, in respect of retraining costs associated with 134 workers, on the basis that they were retrained due to the 1994 restructuring process and continued in employment at the company. This application was successful and retraining aid of IR£190,102 was subsequently paid to Irish Ispat in 1996 to cover part of the costs associated with the retraining programme.
