This article is from page 8 of the 2009-11-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE multi-million euro package to assist Dell employees who lost their jobs earlier this year came a step closer in the last week as the Em- ployment Committee approved the proposal.
Last September the President of the EU Commission José Manuel Barroso announced that the Com- mission had approved an application from Ireland for assistance from the European Globalisation adjustment Fund (EGF).
The grant of €14.8 million would help 2,400 redundant workers in the computer industry in the mid west to find new jobs.
The application however also re- quired the approval of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.
Last Thursday at a meeting in the European Parliament, the Em- ployment Committee approved the proposal to grant assistance to the former Dell workers.
Member of the Employment Com- mittee and the only Irish member of the EU Globalisation Fund Working Group, Ireland North West MEP- Marian Harkin, said that the work- ing group took the decision to ap- prove the Dell application following a response from the EU Commis- sion to a number of questions posed by the group.
“It is absolutely crucial that former
Dell workers have access to this fund as soon as possible and that nothing further delays the procedure. It is an expression of solidarity and support from the EU to those who lose their jobs through globalisation and at least it gives a ray of hope to those considering their future plans.
“IT have worked hard within the working group to ensure support for the Dell workers and I am very pleased with the progress so far,” said the MEP for the West, includ- ing Clare.
The mid-west application relates in total to 2,840 redundancies in total, of which 2,000 were in Dell Com- puters and 840 in eight of its sup- pliers and downstream producers. Dell represented 1.7 per cent of the total employment in the mid-west region, a region where unemploy- ment before the Dell redundancies was already higher than the national average.
The total estimated cost of the package is almost €©23 million, of which the European Union has been asked to provide EGF assistance of €14.8 million.
There have been 27 applications to the EGF since its creation in late 2006 for a total amount of over €154 million, helping some 33,300 workers.
The Dell application is the first re- lating to computers. The only other Irish application was for Waterford eee