asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps he is taking to get support from the EEC to protect existing jobs, create new jobs and reduce the huge numbers of unemployed.
Written Answers. - EEC Support for Employment.
523.
The Government have consistently and actively emphasised, at all levels in the European Community, the central and compelling importance of responding effectively to the current unemployment crisis, especially among young people. In pursuit of this, the Government have been pressing strongly for a significant increase in the resources allocated to the Structural Funds, which are, of course, of particular importance to the less-developed countries and regions of the Community. There is now agreement in principle among our partners that such funding should be made available and it is hoped, therefore, that these funds will begin to play a more significant role in the Community, once new own resources become available, as envisaged, in 1986.
The text on the objectives of the Structural funds, which was before the March European Council and on which there was general agreement in principle, stated that the European Council considered that these funds should become "effective Community policy instruments" aimed, inter alia, at “combating unemployment, in particular youth unemployment”. Under the Structural Funds, there is, of course, a range of support for, and assistance to, Ireland which helps in maintaining employment and reducing unemployment here, either directly or indirectly. The Government have insured that the maximum return is achieved from these funds under their existing regulations. Secondly, the Government have been insistent that under any review of these and other policies, such as the current review of the Regional Fund, the particular interests of Ireland, especially given our relative underdevelopment and our high level of unemployment, should be appropriately taken into account and responded to. I believe that on any objective basis the Government have been successful in their efforts. A recent example, which will help to maintain employment in and further the development of the dairy sector of the economy, was the particular concession made to Ireland in the super-levy negotiations.
The wide range of support which we receive from existing Community policies is set out in the six-monthly Report on Developments in the European Communities which is produced by my Department and is laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. The Deputy can rest assured that the Government are committed to maintaining and developing this support, especially in the areas of unemployment and new policies, while achieving the creation and development of new strategies which will respond relevantly and effectively to the particular problems which confront the Community, and in particular its less-developed member states, such as Ireland.