On 12 February 2009, SR Technics announced the closure of its operations in Dublin Airport with the loss of 1,135 jobs. An application for EGF-co financed measures was made on 9 October 2009 to support the redundant workers. The total value of the application was €11.4 million. The EGF contribution was €7.4 million with the remaining €4.0 million coming from national sources. The application was approved by the EU on 8 December 2010.
A range of supports for the redundant workers was made available under the programme. These included:
- specially targeted engineering-based third level education courses, including aeronautical engineering, to further enhance skills sets already possessed by many of the redundant workers;
- off-the-job and on-the-job training provided through FÁS for mechanical/avionic apprentices affected by the SR Technics redundancy situation to ensure that existing apprenticeships could be completed. This included an innovative scheme placing a number of redundant apprentices with the Air Corps at Baldonnel for relevant on-the-job training. This was a cooperative initiative between the Managing Authority for the EGF, the Department of Defence, the Air Corps, and FÁS;
- occupational guidance services and a range of training initiatives provided by FÁS;
- further education supports provided by the Vocational Education Committees including a skills transfer programme; and,
- enterprise/self-employment supports provided by County and City Enterprise Boards to help redundant workers interested in setting up their own businesses.
The SR Technics programme closed on 9 October 2011. Final figures on total EGF programme expenditure were included in an EGF final report submitted to the European Commission on 9 April 2012. The EGF final report and a table showing labour market outcomes of the EGF programme are set out below:
