Vol. 380 No. 7
asked the Taoiseach the composition of the Government's subcommittee which is co-ordinating Ireland's approach to 1992 as referred to by him in Dáil Éireann on Thursday, 5 May 1988; in respect of the committee the frequency of its meetings; the Department which is providing the secretariat; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
4.
asked the Taoiseach if the Government intend to launch an information campaign in respect of the implementation of the provisions and intentions of the Single European Act by 1992; the projected cost, content, timing and date of launch of the campaign; and the way in which the Government and their agencies will be preparing for 1992.
A Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together.
My reply to a question in the House on 23 March indicated in general terms the measures which the Government are taking in relation to the completion of the internal market. We will be launching a campaign in the near future to make the various economic sectors in Ireland aware of the challenges and opportunities associated with the 1992 deadline and to promote the taking of the necessary preparatory steps by these sectors. The detailed arrangements for the campaign are currently being decided.
I chair the Government committee which has been established to deal with the overall co-ordination of our efforts on the completion of the European Single Market and the effective use of the expanded European Structural Funds. The other members of the committee are the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Finance, Industry and Commerce, Agriculture and Food, Labour, the Environment and Energy and our appropriate departmental secretaries.
I should like to ask the Taoiseach if it is the Government's intention to publish a White Paper indicating the effects on individual sectors of the positions to be taken before 1992, as was done at the time we joined the EC? Will the Taoiseach indicate if the Government can take the decisions within their remit before launching this campaign in order to create an atmosphere of certainty for business in regard to such matters as the time scale for the harmonisation of taxes, the removal of exchange controls and the detailed operations of the structural funds within Ireland? Will the Government take decisions on those matters in order to give the necessary example to business in regard to timely preparation?
It would be quite impossible for us to take decisions on a number of the matters mentioned by the Deputy. We cannot take any decision in regard to harmonisation of taxes until we see how the discussions proceed. With regard to the structural funds, the regulation which will set out the way in which the structural funds will be disbursed is still under consideration and discussion. All we can decide at this stage is our approach to these matters.
I should like to thank the Taoiseach for his reply. A number of questions arise from it and I will try to be as brief as possible. I should like to ask the Taoiseach if the Government committee, composed of Ministers and chaired by himself, is simultaneously addressing itself not only to the problems of the completion of the internal market but also to the problems of integrated programmes and their preparation.
Yes, all aspects.
I should like to ask the Taoiseach if the committee composed of civil servants and engaged in finalising the brief for consultants preparing the integrated programme for Dublin, will be reporting directly to the Government committee?
Yes, that will probably be the procedure.
I should like to put one further question to the Taoiseach bearing in mind that we will have more time to debate these matters on Thursday. Will the elected public representatives of Dublin city and county — city councillors, county councillors or Oireachtas Members — be involved at any stage in that process and, if so, where and how?
I must confess to the Deputy that I have not addressed that aspect. As the Deputy will know, officials of the local authorities are involved as a matter of course, but whether there will be another step in the process is something we will have to consider.
I want to call Deputy Bruton.
I should like to put a final supplementary question to the Taoiseach.
Deputy Quinn has put a multiple of supplementaries and I was allowed to put one.
Will the Taoiseach not agree that having one assistant city and county manager representing approximately one third of the population of the State when there are more than 80 representatives for the same territory is hardly satisfactory? Will the Taoiseach look at this with a view to coming back to the House with a proposition or proposal?
The function of the committee is to prepare integrated plans. It is more executive and operational rather than a representative matter. In so far as any integrated plan for Dublin city, or any other local authority area, is concerned, at the end of the day it will have to be implemented to a large extent by that local authority and I certainly foresee that the local authority will have an important role to play in regard to it.
I should like to ask the Taoiseach to indicate if the Government intend to publish a White Paper in regard to individual sectors concerning the effect of 1992. Will the Taoiseach be indicating in that White Paper, or elsewhere, precisely what the Government's approach is in regard to tax harmonisation, the removal of exchange controls and how they would wish to see the structural funds administered in Ireland? Will the Taoiseach indicate the likely date for the launch of the information campaign to which he referred?
To answer the last point first, it will almost certainly be next month. There are a few little aspects of this that have to be brought together. I would not be averse to the idea of a White Paper. It is something we can keep in mind but it is probably a bit early in the day yet to publish anything of that kind. Certainly, it would be very necessary, whether by means of a White Paper or otherwise, to keep everybody in the different sectors as fully informed as possible.
Will the Taoiseach not agree that the representative bodies of all the major economic sectors are already well aware of what is involved here and are, indeed, working with their own membership on it? Would the Taoiseach not find it useful to have working in conjunction with the committee to which he referred experts or representatives from those groups who could assist in co-ordination and in getting the Government's message, such as it may be, down to the grass roots of the economic sectors? Since the matter has been brought up in the House, I should like to ask the Taoiseach if it is true that the brief that is being written for the consultants preparing the study for the integrated programme for Dublin makes no reference at all to transport? If that is the case, why is it that it does not make any reference to it?
No, the drafting of that brief is at too preliminary a stage to give the Deputy any hard information on it but I am fully aware of the fact that any integrated study for Dublin would, of course, have to award a very important priority to transport arrangements.
I should like to ask the Taoiseach if he would agree that the words he used in reply to the questions from Deputies Bruton and Quinn today are almost the same as those he used three months ago when replying to a similar question from me, including the statement that the committee would be set up soon? It now transpires that the committee will not be set up until June.
No, the Deputy was not listening.
The Deputy has got it wrong.
This hardly demonstrates the urgency that I believe is required in relation to this. Will the Taoiseach agree that the tone of the statements coming from the Government is to the effect that we must be ready for 1992, as if that were the commencing date? I should like to remind the Taoiseach that 1992 is the completion date. What we are concerned about is happening.
The Deputy is embarking on a speech rather than putting a question.
Will the Taoiseach agree that already there are 70 Directives in position? Will the Taoiseach agree that the Government will have to show a great deal more urgency in this matter than they have shown to date?
No, I would not agree. The Deputy has, once again, demonstrated his capacity to get simple things wrong. I said that the awareness meeting will be held in June.
The Taoiseach has shown again his capacity to trip himself up.
The Deputy should let the House hear the Taoiseach's reply.
A great deal of work has been going on for some considerable time.
Did the Taoiseach say that the committee would be formed next month?
No, the committee has been formed and has been meeting. The public meeting will be in June.
That is not soon enough.
I should like to ask the Taoiseach if the Government are seeking an exemption on the VAT and excise provisions of the Single European Act. At what stage are the negotiations with the EC on these matters?
It is too early to say because there is nothing yet from which to seek an exemption. By and large I think I can tell the Deputy that our policy would be against derogation. My own view is that harmonisation is still a long way down the road.
The Government's policy would be against a derogation?
I have called the next question.
