Following the closure of the company, the Government approved, at my request, a proposal to seek funding from the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC, to enhance the statutory entitlements of workers made redundant as a result of the closure of the company. My Department then applied to the European Commission for the maximum available amount of 3,000, £2,362.69, per worker of ECSC re-adaptation aid under Article 56(2)(f2>b) of the ECSC Treaty for the workers and also for certain on-site contract workers who were made redundant as a result of the closure of the company and who qualify for aid under ECSC rules due to the nature of the work carried out by them.
I have also obtained agreement from the European Commission to change a provision in a 1991 convention between Ireland and the European Commission on terms and conditions for the granting of aid provided for in Article 56(2)(b) of the ECSC Treaty. Before this amendment was made to the 1991 convention, workers over a certain age would only have qualified for aid on the condition that they retired permanently from economic activity.
It is expected that a formal decision on the application will be made by the European Commission later this month. If the Commission's decision is favourable, it is expected that the funds would be transferred by the Commission to my Department a few weeks after the formal decision, which would mean that the funds might be available for disbursement to the workers by my Department in December, at the very earliest. However, I should emphasise that this is the minimum estimated timeframe and it is very possible that the funds would not be available until early in the new year.