Paul Bradford
Question:447 Mr. Bradford asked the Minister for Labour if he will outline the workings of the new EC programme, New Opportunities for Women (NOW), and if he will give details of the application procedures for this.
Written Answers. - New Opportunities for Women.
NOW is a European Community initiative which aims to promote equal opportunities for women in the field of employment and vocational training in the period to end-1993. The Department of Labour as the designated national authority for the European Social Fund appointed a national co-ordinator and support structure for the NOW initiative as required by the Commission of the European Communities. The national co-ordinator is an official of the Department of Labour, the designated support structure is the Council for the Status for Women.
The NOW operational programme for Ireland was agreed by the Euopean Commission in December 1991. The selection of projects to be funded under the programme is being completed.
Twenty three project sponsors have been given financial assistance to further develop their proposals. Decisions on the funding of projects up to the end of 1993 will be made shortly.
Due to the very large number of applications and the limited funding available under NOW, it is not envisaged that further applications will be sought under the current Community Support Framework.