Vol. 399 No. 4
61 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has received an application for co-financing to enable the self-help development group from Hacketstown, County Carlow to send seed potatoes to Ethiopia; and if so, if he will allocate funding to this group.
An application for £15,000 for assistance towards providing 50 tonnes of Cara potato seed for distribution to farmers in Ethiopia was submitted to my Department on 1 March by Self Help, Hacketstown, County Carlow.
Due to budgetary constraints it is not possible to assist all applications for grants under the scheme of co-financing with the non-governmental organisations.
Many similar applications in respect of very worthy projects were received and it was decided, after the fullest examination, that the self help project could not be considered as a priority for assistance on this occasion. This project had received grants totalling £50,000 in the years 1985-87 to enable it to establish a much higher yielding variety than local varieties of seed potatoes in Ethiopia.
