asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the effects the 20 per cent reduction on the industry and services programme from the EC Structural Funds will have on the proposals contained in the National Development Plan; if he will outline the areas affected by this reduction; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - EC Structural Funds.
23.
As indicated by the Minister for Finance in a press statement on 27 November the Commission of the European Communities have adopted the Community Support Framework, CSF, under the expanded Structural Funds. The CSF provides for assistance of 3,672 million ECU in 1989 prices, about £2,860 million, for Ireland over the period 1989-93. In addition to this amount Ireland will benefit from additional funding through Community initiatives yet to be announced which should bring the total Community funding to over £3 billion.
This level of Community support to help improve the overall structure for economic development in Ireland represents a major injection of resources to help prepare for the increased opportunities and the more competitive environment which the completion of the internal market is creating.
In the case of the industry programme the proposed level of total expenditure over the period 1989-93 on activities considered eligible for Structural Fund support under the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, at the time of the publication of the National Development Plan last March amounted to £941.3 million. ERDF support of £510.1 million was sought towards this expenditure.
Under the Community Support Framework the actual level of ERDF support allocated towards the industry programme amounts to £416 million. It is expected that this will support overall public expenditure of a structural nature on industrial development of over £847 million over the period 1989-93. Not all of this expenditure will be co-financed by the ERDF. This is because ERDF resources available are limited or conventional practice in the administration of the ERDF has excluded certain developmental activities such as equity investment by State agencies.
The Deputy will be aware that, under the regulations governing the Structural Funds, the negotiation of the Community Support Framework is the first step in the process through which money from the Structural Funds is transferred to Ireland. The CSF establishes the total level of support that will be available and its broad disposition between different programmes. These programmes have to be approved separately by the Commission of the European Communities within the framework established by the CSF. The programmes form the detailed basis on which Structural Fund moneys are allocated by the Commission and drawn down by Ireland.
Discussions with the Commission in relation to the approval of the Operational Programme for Industry are at a more advanced stage than for most other programmes. It is expected that Commission approval will be obtained before the end of this year.
The reduction in ERDF resources available to Ireland will mean that the level of expenditure increase on industrial promotion, technological development and marketing support for Irish industry will not now be as high as the 70 per cent increase in real terms by 1993 envisaged under the National Development Plan. The increase in expenditure that will take place, however, will still remain very significant, the increase envisaged at present being about 60 per cent. Until such time as the Commission has approved the industry programme it is not possible to provide precise detail on how the £416 million of ERDF support for industrial development in Ireland over the period 1989-93 will be allocated between the various elements of the programme. I can say, however, that there will be a continuation of the relative shift in resources available for industrial development purposes towards those activities that will help Irish industry to operate more effectively in the more competitive environment that the programme for the completion of the Single European Market is already bringing about. In particular, there will be very significant increases in the resources allocated to those activities which will help Irish industry to upgrade its technological and marketing capacity — areas which a number of objective analyses have indicated are a particular weakness in Irish industry. This shift in resources is reflected in the Estimates for 1990 published recently which show increases over the 1989 Estimates of 18 per cent for CTT and 29 per cent for the science and technology programme operated by my Department, compared with a 7 per cent overall increase for activities undertaken under the aegis of my Department. It is expected that most of the expenditure involved will be supported by the ERDF. Once the industry programme has been approved by the Commission I will make details available to the House.
Deputy Seán Barrett.
On a point of order, if it has taken the Minister six minutes to answer one question without any supplementary being asked how is it anticipated to deal with five questions in 15 minutes? It is impossible to operate Priority Questions on that basis and I ask for your guidance.
I am bound to say that I share the Deputy's anxiety at the difficulty of disposing of five questions in a quarter of an hour. I have no control over Ministers' replies but I do have control over Deputies' supplementary questions——
Unfortunately.
——and I would, therefore, appeal for brevity in that regard. That is all I can do. We must conclude these Priority Questions at 3.45 p.m. so I ask for the co-operation of Deputies in disposing of the five questions before us.
I appreciate that the Chair has no control over the Minister's reply. I asked the Minister the simple question of what effect the 20 per cent reduction in the contribution from the EC funds would have on the overall proposals contained in the National Development Plan. I got a very nice speech, for which I thank the Minister, in relation to what his Department are doing in many areas. Would the Minister please tell me what effect the £94 million reduction in the amount of funds coming from the EC will have on overall policy particularly in relation to job creation? Would he also please tell me what effects the reduction of £20 million in the contribution from the private sector will have on job creation?
The anticipated draw down of EC funds were set at the highest and most optimistic assumptions.
That is nothing new.
It was an opening bid in the negotiations and, I think, not only in this country but particularly in Northern Ireland and right across Europe there is recognition of the success of our Government in getting a massive transfer of resources for industrial development and also for a wide variety of other areas. I have emphasised in my reply that until agreement has been won from the Commission in the context of the operational programmes and the specific contents it is not possible to give the Deputy the information he requires.
May I——
Sorry, Deputy let us have another question.
This is ridiculous.
I want to ask one supplementary.
That may be so but I have called the next question.
May I ask one supplementary?
I seek to be fair to all Members of this House who have questions tabled.
We had five minutes of a speech.
The Deputy has three questions and Deputy Bell has one.