Vol. 474 No. 3
36 Mr. B. Smith asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the specific funding, if any, which is being made available to his Department or to agencies under the aegis of his Department from the European Union's Operational Programme for Peace and Reconciliation; the programmes which will be undertaken; if funds have been allocated to date; if so, the projects which were assisted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2727/97]
Overall management and co-ordination of this operational programme comes under the asupices of the Department of Finance in the South and the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland.
The operational programme comprises seven sub-programmes and 24 measures. The Combat Poverty Agency, under the auspices of the Department of Social Welfare, and Area Development Management Limited, under the Taoiseach's Department, have been contracted to oversee the implementation of the bulk of them.
My Department has a shared responsibility in the selection of projects under two measures: with the Department of Education in relation to the measure entitled Boosting Growth and Retraining for Peace and with the Department of Finance in the measure entitled Investment Promotion.
With regard to the first of these — Boosting Growth and Training for Peace — this measure is currently at an advanced stage in the project selection process which is expected to be finalised in the next few weeks. Accordingly, no funding has been committed as of now.
Lead responsibility for project selection which is currently in operation under the Investment Promotion measure rests with the Department of Finance.
I should also say that my Department, as the national authority for the European Social Fund, has responsibility for the technical task of drawing down the ESF funding componment of the overall operational programme. The total amount of ESF aid under the programme is approximately £15.26 million of which a first advance of £830,313 has been received to date.
