asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of the recent allocation of EC Regional Fund moneys to the extent of almost £10 million to support a shipbuilding programme in five regions of Britain over the period to 1989, any application was made to that fund by the Irish Government for similar support over that period for a shipbuilding programme at Verolme Dockyard, County Cork.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shipbuilding Programme.
7.
The Regional Fund aid mentioned by the Deputy has been allocated from the non-quota section of the Regional Fund and is part of a series of measures which were approved by Council in January 1984.
The aid is intended to help stimulate alternative economic activity in regions adversely affected by difficulties in the shipbuilding sector and is not intended to be expended on measures to develop shipbuilding itself or to support shipbuilding programmes, as suggested by the Deputy.
As laid down in the relevant non-quota section regulation, the selection of regions to be covered by the aid in question is governed by strict criteria, the most important of which stipulates that at least 5,000 persons be employed in the shipbuilding sector in the region concerned. In view of these criteria the south-west region, in which Verolme dockyard lies, did not qualify for aid: employment in shipbuilding in Cork at maximum was in the region of 1,400.
Is this not a blatant case where the Minister should intervene to try to have a lower employment quota recognised? Is that not logical in view of the fact that our population is so much lower than that of the countries to which this applies?
No. I should like to point out to the Deputy that the measure to which Deputy Fitzgerald referred in his question was part of the overall measure in relation to the non-quota section of the Regional Fund. At the time that was set up this country made a specific decision as to the direction we wanted to give to the portion of the non-quota section that would be used here.
But things have changed since; Verolme has closed.