asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that County Louth has been determined by the ESRI as meriting the highest priority for designation for grant purposes during 1988; that there is a reluctance to allow any access to the western development fund or the committee to the fund; if he will urgently intervene in this serious matter and thereby ensure that County Louth is given its just rights and assistance to industrial development which is being interfered with by other vested interests; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - County Louth Grant Aid.
27.
The central development committee was set up to co-ordinate the activities of county development teams which were established to promote economic development in western counties as a result of recommendations in the 1962 report of the Interdepartmental Committee on the Problems of Small Western Farms. The western development fund was set up to assist the central development committee and the county development teams in that task.
There is no connection between the designation of an area for the purposes of the Industrial Development Acts and the inclusion of that area within the scope of the central development committee. The question of granting County Louth access to that committee or to the western development fund does not therefore arise.