EUROPEAN structural funds must be more closely focused on preventing unemployment, the Minister for Finance, MrQuinn, said last night. He also revealed that the 11 Dublin partnership companies would be amalgamated under new European proposals.
The focus of structural funds will be shifted from infrastructure and road building from which Ireland has benefited significantly to unemployment, which has been identified as one of the most pressing concerns for the Irish presidency.
The new focuses will be
. Job creation as the paramount objective
. Competitiveness and development of small and medium enterprises
. Research and development and a labour force qualified in future technology
. Environment and sustainable development
. Equal opportunities.
Speaking at the European Seminar on Employment and Structural Funds in the Slieve Russell Hotel in Co Cavan last night, Mr Quinn outlined the Irish experience to the European ministers.
According to Mr Quinn, structural funds across Europe are being more closely targeted on employment creation as well as helping areas with very high unemployment. Such an approach has the added benefit of making it more likely Ireland will continue to benefit from large European fund transfers after 1999.
The Commission has suggested that the priority for the funds should now encompass training and education for the young as well as helping small firms.
Other priorities for the funds should include environmental objectives, the Minister said, as well as a more active approach to economic and social solidarity. This would include measures to alleviate long term unemployment as well as making it easier for women to participate in the workforce.
Young men who have left the education system with little or no qualifications should also be targeted, Mr Quinn suggested.
One of the major areas of focus is "territorial pacts". Ireland was one of the first countries to introduce such pacts, or national agreements, Mr Quinn said. He suggested that other countries had much to learn from the Irish experience.
"This approach has given us stable and low inflation, improved competitiveness, convergence in incomes as well as very rapid employment growth," he said.
Ireland would now start a pilot project amalgamating the 11 Dublin partnerships from Tallaght to Blanchardstown.
Mrs Monika Wulf Mathies, European Commissioner for Regional Affairs, outlined the progress different states have been making on territorial pacts. Most countries had made some progress, she said. Britain, how ever, had declined to participate.
