The money is part of a fund which was made available to retrain former Dell, Waterford Crystal and SR Technics staff and a separate €35 million scheme to retrain construction workers who have lost their jobs.
OF the €22.817million provided under the EU fund to help retrain workers made redundant by Dell, just €13,619 million was spent.
The figures were revealed as the Department of Education prepares to hand back the first €10 million of unspent funds for Dell and other eligible workers under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.
The money is part of a fund to retrain former Dell, Waterford Crystal and SR Technics staff and a separate €35 million scheme to retrain construction workers who have lost their jobs.
The computer giant announced in 2009 that it was moving its manufacturing business to Poland, resulting in the loss of 1,900 direct jobs and many more from contractors who supplied the plant.
Responding to queries from the Limerick Post, a spokesperson for the Department of Education confirmed a final spend of €13,619m on training and up-skilling former employees of the Limerick plant/
“The potential total amount of funding available as between EU and national sources on this programme was €22.817 million,” the spokesperson added.
In the process, 6,400 interventions were provided for the redundant workers.
“There was a wide range of interventions availed of across the areas of guidance, training – both publicly and privately provided – further education and higher education and enterprise supports, :” the spokesperson said
Asked why more of the available money had not been spent, the Department’s spokesperson said that there were “a number of factors, which included the fact that the retraining and education programmes were demand-led and dependant on the take-up by individuals over the two year period, “a factor which is very difficult to estimate at the start of the process”.
Pointing out that this can lead to overestimation of how much money is required, he said it is worth highlighting that Irish expenditure to date, on average, is similar to, or slightly better even than, the EU average on EGF programmes.”
It also emerged this week that less than 400 of 9,000 workers made redundant nationwide between 2009 and 2010, for whom the funds were intended had taken up training courses.
