Vol. 287 No. 4
asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of his recent statement, he will outline the projects to be undertaken in County Wexford and financed under the European Regional Development Fund; and the amount to be provided for such projects in County Wexford during 1976.
12.
asked the Minister for Finance if any of the European Regional Fund is to be spent in County Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose taking questions Nos. 11 and 12 together.
I would refer the Deputies to the reply given by me in the House on 2nd December, 1975, to a question by Deputy John O'Leary regarding applications for assistance from the European Regional Development Fund in 1976, Official Report Vol. 286 cols. 522-528, in which I indicated that the regional fund was not being administered on a regional or county basis. The entire national territory is treated as a single qualifying region for fund purposes. Applications for fund assistance in respect of projects costing less than £4.17 million are, in accordance with Article 7 of the fund regulation, submitted on a grouped basis for the country as a unit and the Commission determines a single aggregate aid figure for the region. In these circumstances, it is not possible to specify the amount of fund aid approved in respect of individual projects.
The following are the projects from the counties in question, Dublin and Wexford, which were included in the decisions taken by the Commission on projects put forward by the Government during 1975:
County Wexford:
Bellefield drainage scheme, Enniscorthy, industrial infrastructure; IDA land acquisition in County Wexford, industrial infrastructure.
County Dublin:
Warner Lambert (Irl.) Ltd., Dún Laoghaire, industrial investment.
Work on the preparation of a list of projects for inclusion in the 1976 applications is at present in hands.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary say how much money went to the project in Dún Laoghaire?
I cannot give that figure because the money is allocated in a global way for the entire country and not for specific projects.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that in the preparation of the regional fund policy at EEC and national level an area such as Dún Laoghaire did not jump to the forefront of the mind as an area needing some of the regional fund? How about the west of Ireland? How about the Parliamentary Secretary's own area, Kerry?
I will look after Kerry.
The Parliamentary Secretary must not have been doing so when the money is going to a place like Dún Laoghaire.
More than two-thirds of this money has gone to the west of Ireland.
Very little of it has gone for harbour extensions in Skerries and the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries is aware of that. Would the reason why Dún Laoghaire benefited from the regional fund have anything to do with the fact that the Taoiseach represents that constituency?
Arising from the reply of the Parliamentary Secretary and his refusal to give this basic information to Deputy Burke, does he not agree that his refusal is in direct contravention of Article 12 of the fund regulation?
I do not agree. When the Deputy raised the matter in the European Parliament he asked Commissioner Thomson if he was satisfied with the publicity given by Ireland to individual projects which had received regional fund assistance for 1975. Mr. Thomson replied that Ireland had given fairly detailed information on the individual infrastructural and industrial projects benefiting from the fund in 1975. It would seem that Commissioner Thomson was happy with the information we gave him.
The Parliamentary Secretary should continue.
It arose out of a question by a UK Conservative member of the Parliament.
I insist on the Parliamentary Secretary reading out the full reply. Is it not a fact that Commissioner Thomson is investigating this?
I would not say so. Commissioner Thomson has welcomed the assurance given by the Irish Government as to how we are spending the regional fund. He has congratulated us.
What money will be received in 1976? Can the Parliamentary Secretary indicate the areas that will receive this money?
The Deputy is elaborating on the subject matter of questions which refer to Dublin and Wexford only.
There is a further commitment totalling £13.46 million in respect of Irish projects in 1976. Actual payments from the fund in 1976 are to amount to about £12 million and it will be spent as follows: the IDA will get £8.5 million; Gaeltarra Éireann, £1.5 million; SFADCo, £1 million, and the balance of £1 million has been allocated towards the telephone service.
How does the Parliamentary Secretary intend to spend the 1976 allocation? Will he do as he did last year, subsume the full fund allocation into the Exchequer? Will this £12 million be additional expenditure?
Yes.
One final supplementary——
Next question. I have allowed every latitude.
One final supplementary.
Question No. 13. The Parliamentary Secretary will please respond.
