asked the Minister for Finance if he will identify any EEC and national expenditure in the Donegal area for pilot projects and so on, in the £0.2 million, £0.4 million, £0.5 million and £1.1 million categories for 1974 to 1977.
Written Answers . - County Donegal Projects .
139.
: There were no projects, surveys and so on specific to County Donegal involved in the categories referred to during the period 1974-1977. While some surveys (eg. carried out by the Central Statistics Office on a national basis) would have covered County Donegal, it would not in general be feasible to apportion the cost, and the EEC grant element, on a county basis. In the case of "pilot projects and studies to combat poverty", while there is no project specific to County Donegal involved, it is possible to make a very tentative apportionment of expenditure in respect of the Community Action Research Project which is located in three areas, including County Donegal. Such apportionment would indicate that EEC grants of the order of £4.700 in 1976, £10,200 in 1977 and £15,500 in 1978 were involved in Donegal. As EEC grants generally represent 50 per cent of the project cost, national expenditure of the same order would be involved.
It might be mentioned that an EEC grant for the recently completed study on cross-Border communications in the Derry-Donegal area was approved under the European Regional Development Fund rather than from the Regional Studies heading included in the categories referred to in the Deputy's question.
140.
asked the Minister for Finance the County Donegal projects, both public and private, approved for EEC grants in 1976, 1977, 1978; and the amount of grants paid in each year.
The following is the information available:
I Projects Approved
FEOGA Guidance Section
Projects were approved under the following schemes: Individual Projects; Modernisation Scheme; Cessation of Farming; Socio-Economic Scheme; Less favoured areas; Beef and Veal Development; Structures Surveys.
The total approved under the above schemes was: in 1976, £1,369,323; in 1977, £687,420.
Details regarding 1978 approvals will not be available until later in the year when the relevant applications have been processed and approved by the EEC Commission.
European Social Fund
The following organisations received approval for projects to be undertaken in County Donegal in 1976, 1977 and 1978: Industrial Development Authority; AnCO (Industrial Training Authority); Gaeltarra Éireann; CERT Ltd.; North Western Health Board; Rehabilitation Institute; Department of Education; National Manpower Service; Sintéis Ltd.; Magee and Co., Ltd.
The amount of grants approved for the above organisations for projects to be undertaken in County Donegal was in 1976, £892,000, in 1977, £1,012,000 and in 1978, £294,260.
European Regional Development Fund projects
1976: Improvements of national primary road between Donegal and Ballyshannon: Letterkenny—Bridge End road improvement scheme; Advance factory at Falcarragh; Advance factory at Ardara; Provision of syncrolift (boat lifting platform) in Killybegs Fishery Harbour; Buncrana water supply scheme: Gortahork sewerage scheme.
1977: Killybegs water supply improvement scheme; Conversion to automatic working of Letterkenny telephone exchange group; Conversion to automatic working of Buncrana/Lifford/Ramelton telephone exchange group; Falcarragh/Gortahork water supply scheme; Rosses regional water supply scheme—extension to Meehbanad; Advance factory, Derrybeg; Advance factory II, Derrybeg.
1978: No projects approved to date.
Other EEC Grants
There were no projects specific to County Donegal approved for EEC grants during the period in question from any of the other headings under which grants have been approved for Ireland. However, as indicated in reply to another question from the Deputy (Question No. 139 for answer on 13 June 1978), grants for the Community Action Research Project which is located in three areas of the country, including County Donegal, have been made available by the EEC in 1976 and 1977 and 1978.
II Amounts Paid
The amounts of grants paid under these headings for County Donegal projects were as follows:
|
1976 |
1977 |
1978 |
|
|
£ million |
£ million |
£ million |
|
|
FEOGA Guidance Section |
0.1960 |
1.3280 |
Not available |
|
European Social Fund |
0.2416 |
0.3529 |
0.4650 |
|
(receipts to date) |
|||
|
Pilot schemes to combat poverty (Community Action Research Project)—tentative estimate for year |
0.0047 |
0.0102 |
0.0155 |
The position in regard to the European Regional Development Fund is set out in reply to another question from the Deputy (question for answer on 13 June 1978) where it is explained that it is not feasible to apportion the figures for receipts from the fund on a county basis.
141.
asked the Minister for Finance the approximate EEC and national expenditure in the Donegal area in respect of the EEC Regional Development Fund grants of £1.8 million, £8.5 million and £8.5 million, from 1973 to 1977.
: As the Deputy is aware, the entire national territory is treated as a single qualifying region for EEC Regional Fund purposes. Applications for fund assistance in respect of projects costing less than 10 million units of account (£4.17 million) each are, in accordance with Article 7 of the Fund Regulation, submitted on a grouped basis for the country as a unit and the Commission determines a single aggregate aid figure for the region. (All of the fund-assisted projects in Donegal fall into this category). The moneys actually received on foot of approved projects are not used to "top up" the national aid already given. Instead, they are at present applied to the financing of increases in certain services under the Public Capital Programme and are expended as an integral part of that programme. In these circumstances it is not feasible to apportion the figures for receipts from the fund and the expenditure arising from the receipts on a county basis.