Concern over lack of funds for crystal workers

THE ABSENCE of a plan to distribute €2.57 million in EU training funds to former Waterford Crystal workers is causing concern among MEPs.

It was “worrying” to be informed at a meeting with an employer body yesterday that “no preparation” had been made to deliver the funds at local level, Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa told a joint Oireachtas committee.

Mr De Rossa was among five members of the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee who appeared yesterday before the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The European Parliament committee had on Wednesday approved European globalisation adjustment funds to assist some 600 workers who lost their jobs when Waterford Crystal went into receivership last year.

The fund is due to be sealed by a European Parliament vote in the coming weeks.

It was “extremely worrying” to learn that an implementation body had not been set up, Ireland North West MEP Marian Harkin said. She was “not convinced” that the money was targeting the needs of the redundant workers.

Mr De Rossa said there was “indecision” about whether the training fund should be delivered by Fás or should be put to tender for a private company. However there had also been inadequate preparation for implementing the €14.8 million in funds to help more than 2,000 former Dell workers which were approved last year.

It had taken Government agencies a long time to work out how to handle it, he added.

The committee was told that a mechanism should be in place in preparation for a decision on current EU funding applications for former SR Technics and Halifax workers.

“It would be a shame if some central lead agency were not established with a permanent remit to deal with the globalisation fund,” Mr De Rossa said. The application was not made immediately after the redundancy announcement, which needed to be dealt with.

The lack of preparation for Waterford Crystal funds was “shocking” and showed that “we are not learning at all”, Senator Brendan Ryan told the committee.

There was a lot of frustration among SRT workers about delays in the application.

The SRT redundancies were announced in February last year but the Government did not apply until October; this was further delayed by a request for additional information, Mr Ryan added.

Concern over the lack of involvement of social partners in the application process was expressed by Ms Harkin.

French MEP Elisabeth Morin-Chartier, who will draft a paper on the functioning of the fund, said she would emphasise the need for social partner and parliament involvement in the process.

She would also like to see several companies come together to aggregate a request in a region or a sector.

MEPs also met representatives of the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Department of Education and Fás yesterday to discuss the implementation of the fund.

They are due to meet former Dell workers in Limerick today.