asked the Minister for Finance the amount of the total funds which will be made available this year to cushion our entry into the EMS, and the projects to which these funds will be applied.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - European Monetary System.
14.
The European Council decided that loans of up to £225 million from the European Investment Bank and the new Community instrument known as the Ortoli Facility would be made available to Ireland each year for five years in the period 1979 to 1983. These loans will carry an interest subsidy whose capitalised value will be £45 million each year over the same period.
In addition, certain other participants in the EMS have agreed to provide loans carrying interest rate subsidies, the capitalised value of which will be £25 million approximately each year for two years. The amounts of the associated loans have not yet been fixed.
As I said in my Budget Statement on 7 February, the Government have decided that the subsidies should not be allocated until there is a clearer view of suitable areas for their application in the light of actual participation in the European Monetary System. The loans will be applied for the most part to the financing of infrastructure projects. The selection of projects is at present the subject of interdepartmental examination.
Would the Minister tell the House whether or not these loans will be calculated by the Government as part of their overall foreign borrowing figure?
In so far as it is foreign borrowing, it must be counted as foreign borrowing.
Will it be counted as the foreign borrowing to which the Minister and the Government will be referring when they undertake to reduce the level of foreign borrowing, as outlined in the manifesto?
The Deputy seems to be confusing foreign borrowing with borrowing. The Government's attitude in regard to the reduction of borrowing as a percentage of GNP encompasses both domestic and foreign borrowing. Up to now our foreign borrowing has been minimal as compared with that of our predecessors.
The Minister has not yet said whether he will include this element with our total borrowing in calculating whether he has met the manifesto target.
The question refers to the amount of the total funds which will be made available this year. The Deputy is now asking a different question.
When are we to be told the details of the arrangements? How much money is to be borrowed from what countries at what interest rates? What interest subsidies will be paid and when will they be paid? Three months of this year have now passed and none of this information has yet been made available to this House.
As I have indicated, this matter has not yet been finalised.
When will it be finalised?
When everything is ready.
We were told in December that everything was ready and it was all finalised. Now three months later we are told that there is not a clue as to what is happening.
Would the Deputy care to indicate who said that everything was ready and finalised in December?
Statements made at that time made it clear that this arrangement had been made and settled and only details remained to be worked out in the immediate future. It is now three months later and we are told that nothing has been arranged.
We are now talking about the Deputy's interpretation as distinct from his previous assertion that we were told in this House the matter had been finalised. It is important to distinguish between the Deputy's assertions and facts.
It is important to get the information to which we are entitled. We are not getting it.
The House will get the information when it is available.
Has any conclusion been reached by the interdepartmental committee on the sectoral investment which will be most preferred?
This has not been finalised, but it has been finalised that the loans will be applied for the most part to the financing of infrastructural projects.
Has any decision been made as to which projects will benefit?
It has not been finalised, although a number of items have greater priority than others. I cannot indicate these items.
To what capital purposes will the £70 million interest subsidies be applied?
As I indicated in my budget speech and again in reply to this question, the Government have decided that the subsidies could not be allocated until there is a clearer view of suitable areas for their application in the light of actual participation in the EMS.
15.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will make a statement on the arrangements for the payment of the EMS interest subsidy.
Draft regulations providing for the interest subsidies are being examined at present in Brussels. These regulations, drawn up by the Commission, have been submitted to the Council for approval. They have also been transmitted to the European Parliament for an opinion.
Are they available to us at this stage? Are they in the Library?
Offhand, I cannot tell the Deputy whether they are available. I will inquire whether they are available in the House.
Will the Minister arrange that they be made available to this House if they are available to the European Parliament?
If it is open to me to make them available I shall do so.
The Minister is not, I trust, suggesting that material of this kind affecting this country can be made available to the European Parliament but not to Dáil Éireann?
I can only say that the regulations governing the disclosure of these documents, as the Deputy knows, are not made here. Subject to those regulations, if the draft is not available in this House I will make it available.
Agence Europe is usually available but not all Deputies can afford to subscribe to it.
It may be that they are already available. I am not saying that they are not available.