Retraining redundant workers
Four succesful applications to the European Globalisation Fund secured substantial funds to help newly redundant workers from Dell, Waterford Crystal, SR Technics, and construction sector companies to "retrain, upskill, attain educational qualifications or entrepreneurial advice and assistance". These supports were to include "tailor-made training and re-training, 3rd level qualifications, entrepreneurship promotion and aid for self-employment".
The fund should only have been drawn down for named individuals, and used directly to benefit them, but most of the workers were not even aware of the funds existence, even though grants were in some cases secured using their names. A lot of work? Well no, because only companies losing 500 workers or more were eligible, so a simple job of passing their personnel records on to the ECB and giving them an application form each was all that was required. However, the civil servant answering for the project, Secretary General of the Dept. of Education and Skills Brigid McManus was forced to admit to the Public Accounts Committee that this had not been done. Answering the question from Deputy Mary Lou McDonald at the PAC hearing: "Are you telling me that in making your calculation ...consultation with those workers did not take place?" Ms McManus replied "It probably did not".
No recipients, no programme, we just "need the money"
So were any workers actually able to make use of the funds drawn down in their names? "We set up ...telephone facilities....We made leaflets and information available. Our new website went live in December and provides information on the programmes. We have a central helpline in FÁS". Not surprisingly this was an almost total failure. TD Pierce Doherty sums it up:
“€55 million was secured for 9,000 named redundant construction workers. The government claims that €22 million of this has been spent. However in reply to a parliamentary question the Government has now admitted than 18 months after making the application none of the 9,000 workers have been contacted. Indeed the Department of Education was not even able to confirm if it knows where these individuals live. How the government can claim that it has spent €22 million on people it has not contacted is beyond me".If the individuals were not identified, how could any programmes be developed for them? Ms McManus gave a similar answer "There was some consultation but it probably was not specific and identified enough to develop a programme" In fact, not to beat about the bush, "we may not have designed initiatives". So no recipients, no programme, no initiative. The excuse: "Sector-wide applications are difficult. To be honest, one wonders whether one should make them at all, but we need the money".
60 million returned, 22 million unaccounted for
Most of the 93 million had to be returned to the European Union. But where has the 22 million unaccounted for actually gone? The EGF leaflet lists a number of training providers and advisers who were benefitting, including Enterprise Ireland which was to "provide business start up, business development and other entrepreneurial supports in terms of advice and financial assistance subject to normal eligibility criteria".
If the funds weren't spent on helping workers to reskill, what might Enterprise Ireland have used them for instead? Perhaps as seed funding for their "Spin-out a New Company" initative which has provided funding for such projects as a computer terminal which "ensures that every hand wash follows best practice for technique and duration. Mounted above clinical sinks, the SureWash units support staff by giving real-time feedback on which parts of the hand wash have been completed. Compliance is automatically recorded for Audit purposes". Orders must be flooding in.
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