asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce why a training grant of £6,000, which was agreed by AnCO, has been withheld from a firm in Droichead Nua, County Kildare (name supplied) which created 40 new jobs.

I am informed by the IDA that they declined to give a training grant to the company in question because of the absence of a long term development programme and because of the poor trading results at the time. The function of AnCO in this case was to advise the IDA whether training carried out was of such a nature as to qualify for a grant.

The IDA met a representative of the company on 20th January, 1977 and informed him that they would consider a training grant for the company if a long term development programme could be put forward and if the trading trends, which had improved, continued to show this improvement.