asked the Minister for Finance if he intends to apply to have the ERDF non-quota scheme extended beyond the expiry date of the present scheme in 1986; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna — Questions Oral Answers - ERDF Scheme
1.
The five year special border areas programme which commenced in 1981 is part of the first series of ERDF non-quota measures. Commission proposals for a second series of measures under the non-quota section of the ERDF are at present being examined in the council. The proposals originally put forward last November did not include any substantial measures for Ireland, but a commitment was given that proposals to finance new measures in Ireland and Northern Ireland would be developed. Such proposals are currently under active consideration. Given the present stage of these discussions, I am not in a position to make a definitive statement at this stage.
Will the Minister agree that having regard to the considerable benefits which have accrued to the Border counties from this particular scheme over the period of its operation there is a need at this stage for us to give the commitment to its retention and expansion by greater funding?
Like the Deputy, I am convinced that we need to continue with measures of this kind for a further period. As I said, such measures are under discussion but given the nature of the discussions at the moment I would prefer not to make any more public statements about it than I have already made. I accept the Deputy's point.
I support the point made by Deputy Kirk and what the Minister said in reply. I was actually the Minister who proposed the inclusion of the Border regions in the non-quota scheme. The Irish Border regions are the only border regions in the Community included in such a scheme. I take it that the Minister is conscious of the fact that the non-quota section is being applied to what are called the areas in sectoral decline throughout the Community, the major steel industry areas and others like that. Would the Minister take that into account in the attitude he takes to the proposal to renew the non-quota section because, relatively speaking, we are getting much less from it than we are from the Regional Fund quota?
I take it that the point which the Deputy is basically making is more appropriate in a context other than that of the non-quota section on its own. It is a matter which is being touched on in the discussions which are the subject of the other debate here today. The question of our position within the Regional Fund in general, the guarantees we have and the certainty we have in relation to the amount of funding to be made available to this country are matters which are uppermost in my mind in those discussions.