asked the Minister for Labour the amount Ireland will receive from the Social Fund of the European Community this year; the agencies which will benefit from this funding; and the amount by which each agency will benefit.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - EC Social Fund Receipts.
3.
The amount of money which Ireland has received in 1987, to date, from the European Social Fund is £105.2 million. This consists of advance payments for 1987 operations of £80.5 million and £24.7 million in respect of operations carried out in previous years.
The agencies benefiting from the assistance and the relevant amounts received are set out in the form of a tabular statement which I propose to circulate with the Official Report.
In addition to the payments already received, Ireland has outstanding claims, relating to pre-1987 operations, amounting to £36.6 million lodged with the European Commission. If the current EC budgetary problems are resolved in the near future, I would expect at least part of those claims to be paid in 1987. At this stage, it is not possible to estimate how much.
The following is the tabular statement:
|
Organisation/Department |
Breakdown of ESF payments received in 1987 to date |
|
£m |
|
|
AnCO |
38.96 |
|
Department of Education |
26.25 |
|
National Rehabilitation Board (on behalf of health boards and voluntary rehabilitation bodies) |
17.34 |
|
Department of Labour |
11.95 |
|
IDA |
3.62 |
|
CERT |
3.37 |
|
ACOT |
1.96 |
|
YEA |
.59 |
|
Údarás na Gaeltachta |
.33 |
|
BIM |
.23 |
|
Irish Management Institute |
.19 |
|
Department of Justice |
.13 |
|
SFADCo |
.09 |
|
Aer Lingus Teoranta |
.06 |
|
ESB |
.05 |
|
Kilkenny Design Workshops |
.05 |
|
Irish Productivity Centre |
.03 |
|
105.2 |
The Minister's reply was not straightforward but I can understand the reasons for that. Will the Minister give the House an indication of the difference in the receipts between this year and last year?
The amount approved for 1987 operations is £162.2 million but I do not have the figure for last year. In fact, I gave that figure in the course of a reply in the House recently. I will give the Deputy a breakdown of the figures later.
Is the Minister in a position to indicate if there was an increase or decrease over last year?
To the best of my knowledge — this is only a guess — the figure has increased. Balances are brought forward from previous years and they complicate the issue because 50 per cent of the approved assistance, or 30 per cent in the case of a pilot project, is paid on approval of the application. Applicants have 10 months after the completion of the operations to lodge claims for outstanding balances. The 50 per cent advances in respect of 1987 programmes have been received and claims for the balances must be lodged in Brussels by October next. If the Deputy wishes I will try to tie down the figures for her.
I am interested to know if there has been any change in the criteria applied to the agencies or schemes seeking benefit from the fund. Have those changes taken place or are any proposed? If they are being proposed are we negotiating on the basis that we wish to set down our markers about the schemes we wish to run? Do we wish to continue putting an emphasis on the schemes for under 25s as opposed to over 25s?
The answer to the first two questions is "yes". A major review of the social fund is taking place and a number of meetings have been held to consider it. We put forward our views at those meetings and I am anxious that we get as much money as possible for schemes that have a realistic chance of creating long term employment, not necessarily age related. Negotiations will continue through the year and it is my belief that we will not have final proposals on the ESF until early next year.