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Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 20 Nov 1979

Vol. 316 No. 12

Written Answers. - EEC Social Fund.

384.

asked the Minister for Finance the steps taken by the Government to resist expenditure cuts in the EEC Social Fund by the Council of Ministers in the 1980 budget, particularly the reduction in expenditure for the vocational rehabilitation of handicapped persons.

The Council, in establishing the draft budget for 1980, entered commitment appropriations of 826 million EUA for the European Social Fund. That figure represented an increase of about 7 per cent over the corresponding figure in the 1979 budget. Of that total, commitment appropriations for measures for handicapped persons were agreed by the Council at 70 million EUA, an increase of 9 million EUA or 15 per cent over the corresponding amount in the 1979 budget.

The total amount of 826 million EUA decided by the Council was less than the amount proposed by the Commission in the preliminary draft budget, that is, 1,000 million EUA. It should be emphasised that the decisions of the Council in budgetary matters are taken by qualified majority and that the proceedings of the Council are confidential. Accordingly it would not be appropriate to go into detail in regard to the positions taken by member states in the course of budgetary discussions. While some member states including Ireland supported the amounts proposed by the Commission for the main areas of the social fund there was not the required qualified majority to retain in full in the draft budget the amounts proposed by the Commission for most headings including measures for handicapped persons. In the latter case, where the Commission had proposed 75 million EUA, the highest figure on which a compromise could be reached was 70 million EUA.

It might also be pointed out that the establishment of the 1980 draft budget by Council is only the first stage in the Community's lengthy budgetary procedure. There remains the clear possibility that the appropriations entered for the social fund in the draft budget will be increased before the end of the budgetary procedure.

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