Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 7 Mar 2002

Vol. 550 No. 2

Written Answers. - Departmental Funding.

Michael Moynihan

Ceist:

69 Mr. M. Moynihan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the funding allocated each year from 1995 to 2001 by her Department for Cork North-West; the specific project investments; and the major developments which began or major service improvements which were funded as a result of an increase in funding in each of these years. [8062/02]

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Ms Harney):

The provision of support to industrial projects is a day-to-day matter for the industrial development agencies under the aegis of my Department and not one for which I, as Minister, would have a direct function. The relevant agencies are IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the Cork County Enterprise Board.

I assume that the Deputy is referring to the financing of capital infrastructure projects and, in that context, it is important to point out that the agencies' policy in recent years has been to move away from capacity building supports, such as capital grants, towards supports targeted on improving specific business functions such as research and development and skills enhancement.

The following information has been supplied by the agencies regarding funding for job creation between 1995-2001.

Enterprise Ireland, which has responsibility for the development of the indigenous sector, approved the following grants for its client companies in Cork North-West between 1995 and 2001 as contained in the table below.

Year	Total Amount Approved (€)
1995	4,626,357
1996	1,732,014
1997	524,139
1998	1,751,008

Year	Total Amount Approved (€)
1999	1,890,304
2000	1,811,595
2001	549,052

The total support approved for major client projects in the area is tabulated below.

Company	Total SupportApproved (€)	Sector
Golden Vale	1,936,908	Food
Newmarket Co-Op	478,692	Food
Grainger Sawmills	954,063	Timber
Mid-Cork Pallets	1,092,927	Timber
Palfab	825,109	Timber
Fibre Optic NetworkSolutions	392,349	Electronics (now Shannon Development)
Impulse Engineering	1,282,054	Engineering
BCD Engineering	429,915	Engineering
Castlemore Minerals	377,188	BuildingMaterials
1 2 Travel.com	238,773	International Services

IDA Ireland, the agency under the aegis of my Department charged with the attraction of overseas industry to Ireland has been active in the following projects in Cork North West during the period 1995 to 2001:

1996: FCI Fermoy – start-up company manufacturing connectors for telecommunications and automotive industry; current employment: 215 permanent and 80 temporary staff;

1998: Kostal Mallow – start-up company manufacturing automotive products; current employment: 167.

IDA Ireland expenditure on capital projects during the same period was as follows:

1998: Charleville IDA Estate – approximate expenditure: €152,400; Fermoy Rathealy IDA Estate – approximate expenditure: €50,000;

1999: Mallow – extension of estate services – approximate expenditure €252,550.

The purpose of the expenditure in all these cases was to facilitate future companies locating on the estates.

The county enterprise boards assist in the development of micro-enterprises. The funding provided by the North Cork County Enterprise Board for client companies in the area for the years 1995 to 2001 was as follows:

Year	€
1995	400,555
1996	531,249
1997	415,839
1998	393,618
1999	468,533
2000	450,757
2001	488,214