MEP KELLY SUPPORTS €63 MILLION FUNDING APPLICATION TO AID CONSTRUCTION SECTOR

Issued : Wednesday 30 June, 2010

Labour MEP for Munster Alan Kelly has welcomed the government’s application for €63 million in European funding for people who have lost their jobs in the construction industry in Ireland between 2009 and 2010.

Kelly pledged to lend his full support to the application; he said “I am happy to provide my assistance to this application. Drawing on my extensive experience from both the Dell and Waterford Crystal applications, I am all too aware of the potential pitfalls and administrative errors made in previous applications.

 

This is an opportunity for the government to show they can make the fund work but the workers must be consulted from the very start. Without extremely close co-ordination with workers, the whole process becomes a bureaucratic nightmare.

 

I will lend my full support to securing this funding and ensuring as much of the fund comes to Tipperary as possible.

 

Activity in the construction sector in Tipperary has come to a grinding halt with many young males now finding themselves on the live register as a result.

I welcome any proposals that would aim to get these young people back in the workforce as quickly as possible.

 

The government must change its entire approach to how they use this fund effectively. The workers must come first with the fund being implemented to maximise benefits to workers.”

 

The total package comes to €63 million, with 65% of the total costs to come from Europe with the remaining 35% to come from the government.

 

Unlike previous Irish applications it relates to a sector, not specific companies. Dell and Waterford Crystal have both been successful with applications with a decision pending on SR Technics.