asked the Minister for Labour if funds will be made available for an outdoor sports centre at Dartry-Rockcorry, County Monaghan, as the application has been submitted by Monaghan VEC.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Monaghan Outdoor Sports Centre.
14.
There are no funds available to my Department from which capital grant assistance could be made available to County Monaghan Vocational Education Committee towards the construction of an outdoor centre at Dartry-Rockcorry, County Monaghan. The sum of £1.2 million made available in my Department's Vote for 1984 is required for commitments to groups previously selected for assistance whose projects are currently under construction or are about to commence during the course of the year.
What criteria is used in deciding on those applications and what percentage is met by EEC funds?
From EEC funds?
I thought the Minister mentioned EEC funds.
No, I said there was £1.2 million in this year's Estimates but that that sum is required for projects which were previously approved. In 1981 the County Monaghan Vocational Education Committee applied for a capital grant towards the cost of the outdoor facility. A very large number of other people also applied and a selection was made at the time. Unfortunately, in this instance the County Monaghan committee were not successful. Since then the funding available in the Estimates has been committed to bringing to fruition the projects which had been selected.
I asked the Minister to explain the criteria used in selecting them. Of the nine centres which were selected north of Dublin, seven in the north and north-east were unsuccessful. Is this another case of neglecting a region?
Political favouritism.
I was not in office at the time and perhaps the Deputy's questions should be more appropriately addressed to those who held office then. I have a recollection, as a new Deputy, that the then Minister for Finance, Deputy John Bruton, brought an empty file into the House which referred to a project that had been selected by Deputy Tunney when he was Minister of State. However, I do not know what criteria he applied at the time.
This is a comparatively new scheme and, where there are floods of applications, they should be sited geographically. Does the Minister agree that there was selectivity in this instance and that an area which is designated as severely handicapped has been ignored?
I am sure that a very convincing case can be advanced by County Monaghan. Where I have discretionary funding available to me, I am anxious that a significant proportion finds its way to Monaghan and other Border counties. In this instance, however, the Deputy is asking me to spend money which I do not have because the money available is already committed to projects which were selected long before I took office.
Does the Minister agree that this very dramatic production of the empty file rebounded on the Ministers concerned, even from their own political organisations, because the file referred to a project which had been identified by the Department of Education, not by any political people, to coincide with the development of a very urgently needed community school in a growing area of population?
If and when I find myself in a position to allocate funds to community groups, I expect that the files on which I will be basing my decisions will be somewhat bulkier than those which were available to my predecessor.
Would the Minister not agree that money has been made available for the project to which he refers?
I am not so aware.
Obviously, the Minister has not done his homework.
How can the Minister expect to deal with bulky files when he is unable to deal with files which have only a small number of applications?
I wish to repeat that this year a sum of £1.2 million is available in the Estimates for capital projects of this nature. That represents an increase of something like 25 per cent on the equivalent figure last year which was about £900,000. All that money is required to complete work already in progress and to allow projects which had been approved earlier to be finalised. There may be other moneys available in the future. If there are and if I am in a position to make any decisions, every application will be considered carefully and on its merits.