A total of £2.86 billion (1989 prices) was allocated to Ireland under the Community Support Framework for Ireland 1989-1993. A further allocation of aid expected to be in the region of £165 million under the Community initiatives should bring our allocation to over £3 billion.
The implemenation of the Community Support Framework is being effected through a series of sectoral operational programmes in the key development sectors. In drawing up the National Development Plan and negotiating the Community Support Framework the Government decided that our national economic and development priorities would best be served by the implementation of the sectoral operational programmes on a national basis.
While no specific allocation of structural funding at sub-regional level was decided on in the context of the negotiation of the Community Support Framework, its implementation at sub-regional level is being monitored by seven sub-regional review committees comprising the social partners, Government Departments, EC Commission and the EIB. I am happy that overall progress in implementing the Community Support Framework is broadly on target.
I cannot accept the Deputy's contention that the implementation of the Community Support Framework has resulted in little investment in the west and north-west sub-regions. The breakdown of Structural Expenditure at sub-regional level, placed in the Dáil Library on 16 September 1991, gives details of expenditure in each sub-region in actual terms for 1989 and 1990 and on a forecast basis for 1991 to 1993. Total investment under the operational programmes over the five-year period will amount to £885 million in the west sub-region and £795 million in the north-west sub-region.
Preparation for the post-1993 Community Support Framework will commence in earnest in 1992. I can assure the House that all relevant considerations including the demographic changes referred to by the Deputy will be taken into account by the Government in this process.
