Strict eligibility criteria must be satisfied under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Regulation in order for a Member State to make a sustainable application for EGF assistance in respect of redundancies occurring in a particular enterprise or sector. These criteria include meeting defined minimum redundancy numbers within certain reference periods.
In this context the EGF Regulation stipulates that in eligibility terms there must have been at least 500 redundancies, over a period of four months, in respect of a single enterprise, its suppliers or downstream producers, or at least 500 redundancies, over a period of nine months, in a NACE 2 (economic activity) sector.
The number of total redundancies in respect of both the companies in question do not fulfil these core criteria and as such do not facilitate the making of an EGF application in either case.
My Department continues to monitor redundancy figures for all sectors nationally with a view to making further sustainable EGF applications as and where appropriate.