Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 2 Jul 1996

Vol. 467 No. 7

Written Answers. - EU Grant Aid.

Dan Wallace

Question:

331 Mr. D. Wallace asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the total value of EU grant aid received by his Department during 1995; if he will give a breakdown of this figure by scheme; the total value of grants bestowed by his Department during 1995; the recipient of each such grant valued at £100,000 or greater; and the amount of each grant that is covered by an EU fund. [13990/96]

Minister for Enterprise and Employment (Mr. R. Bruton)

All European Social Fund transfers to Ireland come through my Department. In 1995, a total of £256 million in such funds was received. Of that, £37 million was transferred directly to other Departments for a range of programmes and initiatives involving ESF Funds. The remaining amount — some £219 million — related to programmes for which my Department has an overall administrative responsibility to the ESF. This was for the support of the following programmes and initiatives:

	£m
Human Resources Development Operational Programme	195.9
Industrial Development Operational Programme	14.8
EMPLOYMENT Initiative	2.8
ADAPT Initiative	1.5
Innovative Actions Programme	4.1
RETEX Initiative	0.2

The implementation of these operational programmes which require the vast majority of these funds is, however, done by other Departments and agencies. For example, under the Human Resources Development Operational Programme, £106.8 million was transferred to the Department of Education, £25 million to FÁS, £19.8 million to NRB and £0.1 million to Department of Justice. Similarly, of the ESF support received for the Industry Operational Programme, £6.2 million was transferred to IDA Ireland, £4.4 million to Forbairt and £3.4 million of the remainder between Údarás na Gaeltachta, SFADCo, the Crafts Council and the Department of Education.

The Operational Programmes and Initiatives listed above also receive funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Operational Programme and from the European Agricultural Guidance and Guarantee Fund (EAGGF). Such funding is provided through the Departments of Finance and Agriculture respectively.

In view of the large number of subprogrammes and measures under the Human Resources and Industry Operational Programmes, the large scale of the European Community funding and having regard to the implementation role residing with other Departments and agencies the Deputy will appreciate that it is not possible for my Department, without a costly major administrative exercise, to provide a full list of all approvals or payments to individual final beneficiaries in 1995 of £100,000 or more.

My Department is itself responsible for the implementation of the EMPLOYMENT ADAPT Innovatory Actions and RETEX Initiatives. None of the 1995 EMPLOYMENT, or ADAPT or RETEX approvals or payments involved sums of £100,000 or more. Under Innovatory Actions, however, six projects were approved for ESF assistance, all of them at support levels of over £100,000 as follows:

Applicant	Project	ESF approved
		IR£m*
FÁS	Guidance for Young People	0.746
FÁS	New Employment in Arts and Culture	0.746
NRB	Establishment of an Accreditation System	0.250
NRB	Employer Resourced Initiative	0.227
IPC	New Work Organisation	0.855
Irish Wheelchair Association	Employability through Training	0.183
Totals	—	3.007

*Irish pound amounts are converted from approvals in ECUs.

Fifty per cent of these amounts were paid out in 1995.

In the Irish case the maximum level of EU support under the ESF and Structural Funds generally including the various Operational Programmes and Initiatives mentioned above is 75 per cent.