Vol. 483 No. 3
89 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the mid term review of the human resources programme under EU Structural and Cohesion Funds has been completed; if so, when it will be published; if he will indicate the areas to which extra moneys will be diverted in this regard; and the area from which these moneys will be taken. [20510/97]
The review process on this operational programme is effectively complete. Proposals resulting from it are at present with the European Commission for a necessary formal decision. I expect this decision at around year's end. This will formally finalise the operational programme mid-term review process.
The changes decided to the programme by the Community Support Framework Monitoring Committee in its overall review, and by the Human Resources Development Monitoring Committee, reflect the relevant recommendations contained in the ESRI's mid-term evaluation of the community support framework which was published by the institute in July 1997. That evaluation was also informed by a dedicated consultancy study of the human resources development operational programme which was undertaken by Goodbody Economic Consultants. No arrangements have been made at this time for the publication of this study.
The changes involve a net increase of 32.8 million ECUs in EU support — 28.6 million ECUs from the European Social Fund and 4.2 million ECUs from the European regional development fund. A total of 18.2 million ECUs of the extra funding will come from inflator moneys approved for the programme in respect of 1996 and 1997. The balance of the extra money was reallocated from other operational programmes. Existing resources totalling 17 million ECUs in EU aid within the human resources development operational programme were also reallocated to priority areas as part of the mid-term review package.
