asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food if, according to the revised Estimates for the Public Services, the 1988 figures for State injection into the western package is £2.5 million compared to £4.4 million last year, and the way in which he can justify a statement made recently that the western package would now be worth £200 million to the west of Ireland.
Written Answers. - Western Package.
16.
The figure of £200 million is a very conservative estimate of total investment, over the whole ten year period of the programme, in the areas covered by the package, and takes into account not only funds provided by the Exchequer and the EC but also the contributions by the beneficiaries.
In the first seven years of the programme, EC funds of £62 million have been drawn down. Further Community funds of £87 million approximately will be available over the remaining three years of the programme. Within eligibility limits set by the EC, it is my intention to propose that grant rates under the revised programme will be set at the most attractive levels so as to ensure a full and early take-up of these funds.
The estimate of £2.5 million for the agricultural element of the programme financed by the Exchequer and mentioned by the Deputy has, indeed, been reduced from a comparable figure of £3.6 million in the 1987 Estimates, and an eventual outturn in 1987 of £4.4 million. The reduction reflects both a required switch in funds in favour of the western drainage scheme which must be taken up by the end of 1988 and the fact that the original orientation of the farm production scheme under the programme was not as attractive to smaller western farmers as I would have liked. The new revised programme which I negotiated recently at the Council in Brussels will allow us introduce a more improved on-farm development scheme than here-tofore. This will lead to a more vigorous take-up in the last three years of the programme.