Vol. 538 No. 1
64 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of projects in the national development plan for which her Department is responsible which are not to proceed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14534/01]
My Department is the designated managing authority for two of the operational programmes under the national development plan. These are the productive sector operational programme and the employment and human resources development operational programme.
The structure of the productive sector is that there are four priorities covered – research; technological development and innovation; industry – indigenous and foreign direct investment; marketing and sea fisheries development. The total OP allocation over the plan is 7.3 billion. These priorities are further broken down into 21 measures which are further broken down into 41 sub-measures. These sub-measures are administered by the relevant bodies with responsibility for the particular areas and contain numerous projects which will receive funding under the national development plan. At this time it is not possible to ascertain the exact number of projects. Some of the measures are competitive and the projects themselves are evaluated only at time of application.
The human resources development OP is almost exclusively a multi-annual rather than project based programme; that is, the essential mode of delivery is the provision of publicly funded education or training programmes over the period to 2006. The total allocation over the plan is 14.2 billion. Again, significant expenditure is planned on construction work, particularly by the Department of Education and Science, to provide the facilities needed for educational courses on over 2,500 projects of all sizes. In the social economy area, however, a project based approach is being used. It is projected that there will be over 400 projects over the OP lifetime.
The objectives and strategies outlined in the national development plan, which relate to my Department, were drawn up in close consultation with Government Departments and the implementing agencies, which include Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland, Shannon Development and FÁS. Under the plan, the Departments and agencies have been set ambitious targets, in particular in relation to the development of the Objective One BMW region. For example, under the productive sector operational programme, IDA Ireland has a target to locate 50% of all new green field jobs in that region.
The monitoring committees of the operational programmes have responsibility for the implementation of the programmes in respective sectors. These committees include Government Departments, the EU Commission, implementing agencies, regional assemblies, regional authorities, employers/business representatives, trade unions, farming representatives and the community and voluntary pillar. Targets have been put in place to measure the progress of the operational programmes at mid-term in 2003 and on completion in 2006. I am confident that over the period of the plan the targets for both programmes are realistic and achievable.
