Vol. 543 No. 5
487 Mr. Farrelly asked the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation the reason for the delay in outlining the criteria for grant aid for tourism development in the national development plan; the eligibility criteria used for applicants for grant aid towards tourism development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27813/01]
I presume the Deputy is referring to the proposed tourism product investment scheme, which is to be funded under the local enterprise development priority of the BMW and the S&E regional operational programmes.
The scheme has not yet been launched because, for the first time, such a scheme has had to be individually notified to the Competition Directorate of the European Commission under the state aids rules for regional aid. Negotiations between my Department and the Competition Directorate were unexpectedly difficult and complex, but I expect to be in a position to launch the scheme in the very near future.
Factual information in relation to the tourism measures within the operational programme is available in the form of the Programme Complements for Tourism Sub-Measures 1 to 3 and I am arranging for extracts from the S&E operational programme to be sent to the Deputy, together with a copy of the selection criteria framework approved by the monitoring committee.
