madam president i welcome the changes to the european globalisation adjustment fund
although reducing the number of redundancies needed to qualify for this fund from one zero to five hundred is an improvement the large number still discriminates against small countries and against workers who lose their jobs in smaller numbers
in my constituencies those who have lost their jobs due to the closure of two companies waterford crystal and dell could qualify
that is very good and i call on the irish government to immediately apply for funding on their behalf
however thousands have lost their jobs because of global economic conditions and it is unfair that they are disqualified because they do not work for big multinationals but for small and medium-sized businesses
i suggest that we could make this scheme fairer by either abandoning the numerical criteria of five hundred jobs or by looking at job loss by category or area not company
this way we could extend this funding to five hundred workers who have lost their jobs across a sector like farming food processing or it or in a specific area like tipperary waterford limerick cork or kerry
a further obstacle for workers trying to access the globalisation fund is that it is only available to workers if their government is willing to apply for it and pay the national contribution
what happens to workers whose governments will not apply
in this i am thinking of the irish government which has not applied for the fund so far
the very countries whose economies are hardest hit and which have the highest unemployment rates may be the countries that can least afford to pay the necessary contribution to help their workers and yet they are the countries that need it the most
