asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if it is his intention to rectify the present regulation governing grant assistance to industry to enable service industry, and so on, to benefit from the European Social Fund.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Industrial Grant Assistance.
12.
The only regulation governing grant assistance to industry for training with which I am concerned is that contained in section 39 of the Industrial Development Act, 1969, which authorises the authority to give grants, subject to certain limits, on such terms and conditions as they think proper.
In pursuance of this section, the authority give grants for training workers in service industries which are export-oriented or undertake activities not markedly established here and which give employment to skilled technical personnel. I do not propose to ask the authority to change their criteria.
I should add that it cannot be assumed that assistance from the European Social Fund would necessarily be forthcoming in any case where the authority give training grants for either service industry or manufacturing industry.