Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 11 Mar 1993

Vol. 427 No. 8

Written Answers. - Jobs Fund.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

This Jobs Fund is comprised of three mutually supportive elements and provides for a total of £260 million in funding during 1993 to promote recovery and sustainable job creation.

The first head under which the Government is providing substantially higher levels of resources is in respect of the 1993 Exchequer-funded element of the Public Capital Programme, excluding Cohesion Fund related provisions, which will increase by £87 million over the 1992 outturn. This £87 million will be fully taken into account in the Voted capital allocations to be included in 1993 Revised Estimates Volume and, accordingly, it will be subject to the usual Government statutory, administrative and accounting procedures applicable to all supply services expenditure as approved by the Oireachtas.

The most significant element of the 1993 Jobs Fund provision is in respect of Cohesion Fund related expenditure. A total of £148 million in additional funding will be provided under this head in 1993 to aid projects in the areas of environment and transport infrastructure. Of this £148 million, £82.8 million is incorporated into the Exchequer PCP and, as such, will also be subject to the usual procedural requirements governing the disbursement of Voted monies approved by the Oireachtas.

The non Exchequer Cohesion Fund provision of just over £65 million will, in the first instance, be funded by the individual commercial State sponsored bodies out of their own resources pending recoupment from the EC.

In regard to the Cohesion Fund, I might just mention that this Fund is provided for in the Treaty on European Union. As the EC Regulations to establish the Fund cannot be adopted until that Treaty is ratified, the European Council at Edinburgh decided that a regulation, based on the existing EEC Treaty, which would establish a Cohesion Fund interim instrument should be adopted before 1 April 1993. The EC General Affairs Council of 8 March 1993 adopted a common position of agreement on the interim instrument. Further technical work will continue in preparation for the next Council with a view to adoption by 1 April 1993. Negotiation of the permanent Cohesion Fund regulation to establish the Fund under the Treaty on European Union is close to completion and the regulation should be adopted in due course.

While all the detailed arrangements at national level are not yet finalised, expenditure on projects to be aided under the interim instrument and the Cohesion Fund will, as with existing Structural Fund expenditure, be administered by the Departments and associated State bodies in whose areas of competence the projects will arise. In general, no special statutory arrangements will be required.

The final area in which the Government is providing additional resources in the context of the overall Jobs Fund provision in 1993 is in respect of the establishment of the county enterprise partnership boards. An allocation of £25 million for spending via the CEPB's this year is being included in the Vote for Enterprise and Employment to be published in the 1993 Revised Estimates Volume and as a voted expenditure item will again be subject to standard Government statutory and accounting procedures.