KELLY WELCOMES EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT’S EMPLOYMENT COMMITTEE TO MUNSTER
Issued : Monday 10 May, 2010
Munster MEP Alan Kelly has welcomed news of the pending visit to Munster by the European Parliaments Employment Committee.
The Committee will visit Limerick on June 4th where they hope to meet representatives from the Dell Redundant Workers Association.
Kelly said “I am delighted to welcome the European Parliament's Employment Committee to Munster.
I issued the invitation to the committee to visit Ireland and inspect how the European Globalisation Fund is being utilised.
The committee will examine how effectively the European Globalisation Fund is being administered for the former Dell Workers.”
Kelly added “The administration of EGF resources has been held up by unnecessary roadblocks and barriers.
It has been an extremely frustrating time for the former Dell Workers who have been trying to access funds since the fund was announced in September 2009.
Tireless work was done in Europe to secure these resources for the former Dell Workers only for the fund to be tied up in bureaucratic red tape by the current Irish Government.
It is my hope that the visit of the committee will refocus the Government’s thinking about the EGF and speed up the entire process for the workers.
Just a tiny fraction of €22.8 million of the allocated funds have been spent and its simply unacceptable that we may send money back to Europe if its not spent by the fund deadline of June 2011.
The Committee's report on the administration of the EGF in Ireland will then be transmitted back to the Parliament's Budgets Committee. This could have serious implications for future Irish EGF applications and I am concerned that the lack of effective administration of the fund could reflect negatively on future Irish applications.
The delegation will consist of around 7 of my MEP colleagues from the Parliament and will include the Committee Chair, French MEP Pervenche Beres.”
