asked the Minister for the Environment if he intends to establish any statutory regional authorities with responsibilities for implementing regional programmes for the usage of EC Structural Funds.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Usage of EC Structural Funds.
19.
The National Development Plan 1989-1993, which sets out Ireland's national development priorities in the areas relevant to the three Structural Funds, has been submitted to the European Commission. The plan is to be implemented by means of operational programmes covering various key sectors of the economy. My Department are concerned with two operational programmes, one covering roads and another dealing with sanitary and other local services. Both have been prepared following consultations with local authorities and took into account the views of the regional working groups and advisory groups. The next step in the process, in accordance with the relevant EC regulations is for the Commission to issue its response — known as the Community Support Framework — to the National Development Plan. In the meantime there will be ongoing consultations with the Commission and between my Department and Commission officials on the two operational programmes to which I have referred, copies of which have been submitted to the Commission.
The local authorities, the National Roads Authority and my Department will be responsible for implementation of the operational programme for roads which was formally submitted to the EC Commission on 30 March. I propose to establish a monitoring committee representative of the implementing authorities as well as the EC Commission, together with industrial, tourism and other relevant bodies to monitor the implementation of the programme. In relation to the sanitary and other local services operational programme which was submitted to the Commission on 12 April 1989, the local authorities and my Department will be responsible for implementation and in this area also it is proposed to establish a monitoring committee. These committees will be in accordance with the relevant EC regulations.
Specialist statutory regional bodies for the purposes of implementation would not seem to be necessary or appropriate because the operational programmes will be implemented on a sectoral basis and because monitoring committees will be set up for each of them. Moreover the establishment of such bodies would derogate from the position and status of existing local authorities and would add a further layer to the local administrative structure.
Can the Minister confirm that he is saying it would be totally impossible for each of the seven designated regions to determine whether the objectives prescribed by the National Development Plan are being achieved and that it will be totally impossible to monitor, on a regional basis, what is taking place or to take corrective action if things are going wrong? Can the Minister confirm also that the working and advisory groups the Government established within each of the seven regions are now effectively defunct and that the Government envisage that they will play no further role with regard to either formulating further operational programmes or monitoring or implementating the National Development Plan within each of the seven designated regions?
The plan will be implemented through the sectoral operational programmes. As I have stated, the monitoring committees representative of the various authorities I mentioned will be there to see to it that the work is completed and I think they will be able to do that in an efficient and effective way rather than setting up another layer of administration which I do not think is necessary. I am talking now as far as my two particular programmes are concerned. The Commission will be involved in the roads programme and the National Roads Authority will be in a position to deal with that matter very efficiently with input from local authorities, the Department and other agencies. There will be a good method put in place with a view to seeing to it that the jobs as indicated in the programmes, when approved by Brussels, will be implemented. I do not see any difficulty there.
Would the Minister agree that all the monitoring groups he is talking about will be, in effect, secretive departmental groups who will report to the Minister but will not make their deliberations public, and that therefore information as to whether the objectives the Minister is laying down in these programmes are being achieved will be rendered an official secret? Can the Minister tell us whether, in the context of the roads and the sanitary services programme he submitted to Brussels, he had sight of and gave consideration to the final completed report of the Dublin consultants who were appointed to prepare a consultancy study on the Dublin region?
I do not accept what the Deputy says in the first part of his supplementary. There can be nothing secretive about it.
The Minister has not published his roads programme. That programme has been a secret since last October.
In regard to the roads programme, particularly the operational programme which has been submitted, it would be foolish for any Minister to publish such a programme, or any programme, in advance of the consideration that is to take place in Brussels.
Why?
Once the matter has been finalised and once the approval has been agreed the Deputy can pursue that question further. There cannot be anything secretive as far as monitoring is concerned because the monitoring committees are to be set up by agreement between the member state, that is Ireland, and the Commission. It is not something that will be done by the Government in isolation. The Commission will be represented on it. What would we have to hide? Once the operational programme is in place we will be just as anxious to see to it that the work is put in place, authorised and constructed.
If the Minister got it wrong he would not want the general public to know about it.
How can we get it wrong when I have already given details in reply to a previous question of the money to be provided in the sanitary services area? I even mentioned the figure to be spent each year over the next five years. I have made public statements as to the total amount of money that will be available for road works. All that is public knowledge. In response to further questions previously I listed the projects that are to be put in place. In due course when the matters have been finalised in discussion with Brussels I am sure the Deputy will pursue the matter further.
The Minister was going to respond on the Dublin consultancy.
I am calling Deputy Brendan Griffin.
When does the Minister expect the first inflow of Structural Funds and what proportion of those has to be met from the national Exchequer?
The Deputy will appreciate that I have been carrying on business in relation to the road network as if the matter were already in place. The Deputy will have seen a certain seeking of tenders for certain major roadwork schemes throughout the country. I gave an indication today about the number of major sanitary service capital works. I have also given information about the locations of the major road works and the kind of money that will be involved. We will certainly have money this year from the intervention rate attached but that will be finalised within the framework of the regulation that, hopefully, will be concluded before the House rises. I have no knowledge of the exact date but I know that our national plan is being given immediate and urgent consideration right now, particularly some of the operational programmes, among them the roads programme, as an indication of good faith and because there is a certain lead-in time to many of these projects which means we need to get on with them if we are going to draw down money this year. We are going full steam ahead and the Deputy would know about that from recent newspaper announcements seeking tenders for various jobs.
Could the Minister deal with the second part of the question I asked? Did he take into account the final recommendations made in a completed consultants' document for the Dublin region on the sanitary service and roads operational programmes, or do the contents of the consultants' report divert in any way from the proposals the Minister sent to Brussels?
I am not in a position to give a detailed response to that except to say that all matters that were considered by the working party and the advisory groups were matters for consideration——
The consultants' report, not the working party or advisory groups.
——and were considered in the framing of the national plan which was submitted.
What about the consultants who were paid £3,000 to produce a report?
As the Deputy knows, that should be addressed to another Minister.
That was dealing with roads and sanitary services in Dublin. That is this Minister's area of responsibility.
Yes, it includes some of their brief. The Deputy is quite right.
And did the Minister get their report?
Please, Deputy Shatter. I am calling No. 20.
The answer is no. He does not have the report.
The Deputy knows the answer to everything. Why is he asking the question if he knows the answer?