Childers highlights SRT workers plight in European Parliament

Posted by Andy White on February 25, 2010 at 10:59 AM

Nessa Childers MEP highlighted the plight of former SR Technics workers in the European Parliament today.

Speaking in the Parliament, she expressed her concerns that former workers have been denied places at third-level colleges because of ongoing delays by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in processing an application for support for the workers to up-skill under the European Globalisation Fund.

The Leinster MEP said: he patience of redundant SR Technics workers living in the counties of Meath, Louth, Wicklow, Kildare and Dublin is being sorely tested at the moment by the Irish government.

“Last week, a major third level course in the Dublin Institute of Technology which was tailor-made to up-skill redundant workers at the SRT aircraft maintenance facility was cancelled, because the college lost patience with the Irish government.

“A full year after the devastating announcement was made that the company would be closing the gate on its flagship Dublin operation, we are told that the government’s application to the Commission for the Globalisation Fund, which would have helped these workers to get back into education, has been ‘returned to sender’ in Dublin. The forms are still on the Minister’s desk.

“Colleges, like DKIT, who arranged courses in the reasonable expectation that payments from the fund would be made at this stage have had to think again. Highly skilled and talented workers now face a further period of hitting the dole queue when they should be hitting the books.

“The EU has helped all it can. The financial supports for SRT workers are there. It is high time the Irish Minister for Enterprise now started prioritising the case of SRT workers.”

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