Trevor Sargent
Question:40 Mr. Sargent asked the Taoiseach the procedures and criteria required in the establishment of partnership organisations such as the Ballymun Partnership.[3405/95]
Written Answers. - Partnership Organisations.
Establishment of partnership organisations requires: (i) designation of an area as disadvantaged under the Operational Programme for Local Urban and Rural Development, and (ii) establishment of a partnership company. Thirty five areas are designated under the operational programme.These are:
Dublin:
Ballyfermot
Ballymun
Blanchardstown
Clondalkin
Coolock/Darndale/Kilbarrack
Crumlin/Kimmage/Walkinstown
Dublin Inner City
Finglas/Cabra
Tallaght
Rialto/Kilmainham/Bluebell/ Inchicore
Pockets of Disadvantage in Dún Laoghaire and South County Dublin
Other Urban:
Bray
Cork City
Drogheda
Dundalk
Urban/Rural:
Galway City
Galway County
Tralee
South West Kerry
Limerick City
West Limerick
Waterford City
Waterford County
Wexford Town
Wexford County
Rural:
Offaly North and Kildare North West Rural
Cavan
Donegal
Leitrim
Longford
Mayo
Monaghan
Roscommon
Sligo
Westmeath
The specific boundaries of the areas will be announced in due course.
The choice of areas to be designated was based on an assessment of the areas involving objective and measurable criteria such as indicators of disadvantage, feasible operational boundaries and viability in terms of size and economic base. The following data were used. (i) A study for the Combat Poverty Agency, undertaken by the ESRI and GAMMA, Geographical and MultiMedia Applications Ltd, which provided a ranking of areas in terms of their overall deprivation. The study used the following variables: the percentage in higher and lower professional classes, the percentage leaving school at 20 years or more, the percentage leaving school at 15 years or less, the percentage in the unskilled manual class, the unemployment rate, the percentage in small scale farming, defined as 30 acres or less, the labour force participation rate and the age dependency rate; (ii) the live register age by duration analysis; (iii) applications for global grant funding received by ADM Ltd; (iv) the Department of Social Welfare's community development programme; (v) data relating to the percentage unemployed in local authority rented accommodation and (vi) the report on County Dublin Areas of Need, CODAN.
The areas were designated following recommendation by the interdepartmental policy committee on local development. The areas include the 12 pilot partnership areas, including Ballymun, which were established as part of the area based response to long term unemployment introduced under theProgramme for Economic and Social Progress, and where partnership companies already exist. Deciding on the specific boundaries of the areas involved a process of local consultation undertaken by the national co-ordinating team who met a wide range of groups and organisations in the various areas.
Partnership companies are companies limited by guarantee with their own articles and memorandum of association.Each partnership has a board of directors, manager and other staff. In general the boards are tripartite with representatives from the local community, the social partners, and the State agencies. The social partners and State agency representatives can be nominated. The community directors are nominees of the local communities.
The task of the partnership is to prepare a local development plan and work towards having it implemented. The plan must reflect the objectives of the Operational Programme for Local Urban and Rural Development, the objective is that measures initiated by the partnerships would complement mainstream programmes. Activities eligible for funding under the operational programme are: activities to support enterprise creation and development, environmental and infrastructural works, transport services to isolated communities, activities to support education and training, services for the unemployed and community development.
The national co-ordinating team will also recommend the formal partnership structure to be put in place in the designated areas. A partnership must have the capacity to prepare and implement, or act as the catalyst to implement, a local development plan.
The operational programme involves total Structural Funding of 257 million ECU. Of this 97.144 million ECU will be available to the sub-programme on integrated development of disadvantaged and other areas and between 75 per cent to 85 per cent of this will be available to partnerships. The Operational Programme for Local Urban and Rural Development was published on 2 February 1995. Copies have been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.