Vol. 449 No. 2
10 Mr. E. Byrne asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the projects which have applied for grant-aid from each of the county enterprise boards since their establishment; the projects which have been approved; the number of jobs generated by each project; the level of aid for each project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3369/95]
My Department is made aware only of projects which are approved for grant aid by the boards. I do not have the information sought by the Deputy on the projects which have applied to the board for grant aid. Over 2,700 individual projects have been approved by the 35 boards since their inception in 1993 to 31 December 1994. It would be impractical to list these individually and in any event it is a day to day matter for the boards. However, the statistics on a board by board basis are set out on the following tabular statement:
County Enterprise Fund Approvals 1993-94
|
County |
Number of Projects |
Grant Value |
Job Potential |
|
|
Full-Time |
Part-Time |
|||
|
Carlow |
88 |
810,859 |
156 |
60 |
|
Cavan |
72 |
769,124 |
135 |
39 |
|
Clare |
93 |
743,900 |
152 |
46 |
|
Cork City |
66 |
454,647 |
84 |
4 |
|
Cork North |
42 |
547,000 |
109 |
8 |
|
Cork South |
86 |
826,990 |
162 |
17 |
|
Cork West |
71 |
720,276 |
117 |
36 |
|
Donegal |
79 |
683,949 |
118 |
32 |
|
Dublin City |
83 |
610,940 |
195 |
22 |
|
Dublin Fingal |
43 |
547,571 |
95 |
8 |
|
Dublin South |
56 |
1,102,588 |
149 |
20 |
|
Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown |
58 |
555,133 |
115 |
3 |
|
Galway |
195 |
1,345,895 |
322 |
59 |
|
Kerry |
155 |
1,176,413 |
209 |
96 |
|
Kildare |
75 |
586,050 |
107 |
7 |
|
Kilkenny |
70 |
716,019 |
95 |
41 |
|
Laois |
62 |
621,219 |
87 |
23 |
|
Leitrim |
87 |
739,614 |
129 |
34 |
|
Limerick City |
94 |
543,983 |
110 |
20 |
|
Limerick County |
137 |
942,940 |
107 |
42 |
|
Longford |
61 |
522,039 |
108 |
23 |
|
Louth |
44 |
337,824 |
66 |
9 |
|
Mayo |
127 |
1,048,212 |
159 |
54 |
|
Meath |
70 |
647,515 |
124 |
23 |
|
Monaghan |
33 |
481,900 |
77 |
16 |
|
Offaly |
72 |
856,210 |
115 |
48 |
|
Roscommon |
88 |
730,295 |
116 |
29 |
|
Sligo |
92 |
808,108 |
179 |
61 |
|
Tipperary NR |
37 |
362,136 |
48 |
23 |
|
Tipperary SR |
59 |
352,182 |
42 |
3 |
|
Waterford City |
93 |
597,459 |
122 |
20 |
|
Waterford County |
60 |
394,762 |
56 |
26 |
|
Westmeath |
51 |
452,443 |
78 |
19 |
|
Wexford |
103 |
994,978 |
113 |
70 |
|
Wicklow |
57 |
770,318 |
83 |
18 |
|
Total |
2,759 |
24,311,491 |
4,239 |
1,059 |
Is the Minister happy that each county enterprise board will receive the same contribution of £500,000 and that there is no system under which he could discriminate in favour of areas where there is economic and social deprivation? In this regard Dublin, where one-third of the population live, is being discriminated against. Is the Minister aware that as the boards concentrate mainly on their obligation to provide grant aid they lack qualified staff to provide assistance and advice? Will the Minister comment on a two paragraph rejection of an application by a father and son who went to great trouble in making the application only to be told that it had been examined, that there was an over-supply of business in the area and that they were not in a position to fund the project? That type of rejection letter to an applicant does not do anything to assist in stimulating the project idea put forward by that individual.
Decisions such as the one described by the Deputy are delegated to the local board and would not be routinely brought to my attention. The boards must take into account certain criteria in deciding on projects, one of which would be the potential of displacement, as it is called. In other words, would the establishment of one project put another project out of business?Issues such as that can result in a rejection of what might seem, to the promoter, to be a worth-while project. I accept the Deputy's point about the same poundage being allocated to all enterprise boards. In the longer term I would not like to see that continuing. It was a short term measure to get the boards up and running but we should relate grant aid to the quality of programmes put forward and the type of problems they are designed to address. I also accept the Deputy's point in relation to the need for advice and other such supports to be available to the county enterprise boards. I am glad to say that, when the details of the operational programme on local development are in place, the county enterprise boards will have access to the provision of soft supports, as they would be described, for their clients.
