While welcoming the intention of the Government to apply for EU Globalisation Funds for Talk Talk workers, Independent MEP Marian Harkin has called for the application to give appropriate weight to supporting the creation of new small enterprises.

In a statement Deputy Harkin said that previous applications, including the recent approval of €35 million in EU funds for the construction and related sectors, had not contained sufficient proposals to encourage new small scale enterprise. 

She said: “While acknowledging the value of funding for training and upskilling purposes there is a danger that Globalisation Funds will be used in the main to substitute government funding for training and upskilling.

“Far greater flexibility is needed for the Talk Talk application, and for MBNA if needed, and an example of what can be included can be seen in the approval by the European Parliament last week of grant aid for workers who have found a new job and subsidies of up to €20,000 per job for up to three new workers employed.

“Previous applications by the Government for Globalisation Funds have bitterly disappointed some workers whose ambitions could have been fulfilled by a more comprehensive and flexible application.  As the sole Irish member of the European Parliament’s Sub Committee on the Globalisation Fund, observing the flexibility in applications coming from other EU countries, it is obvious to me that Ireland is not making best use of this very valuable source of pump priming finance for small enterprise.

“I urge the Government to make the most flexible possible application for the ‘Talk Talk’ workers and to consult with those workers to assess the numbers whose preference would be to develop new enterprise rather than opt for training or upskilling.  The latter options will probably apply to most of the workers but those who wish to develop their own enterprises must be given every opportunity to access funds and not be precluded by an inadequate and inflexible application to the Globalisation Fund”.