asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if grants paid out by the IDA are recoverable in the event of a recipient company effecting a complete closure; and if such grants are a first charge on the assets of the closing company, or rank with the claims of other creditors as an ordinary debt.

I understand from the Industrial Development Authority that grants paid out are recoverable by them in the event of a recipient company effecting a complete closure of the grant-assisted under-taking within ten years of the date of the grant agreement.

IDA grants are not normally secured by a charge on the assets but rank with other non-preferential creditors as an ordinary debt.

35.

asked the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Energy if machinery, which has been the subject of a grant from the IDA can be held in situ rather than be removed for installation and used elsewhere, where the company being closed is a unit of a group which carries on the same manufacture in other places in the State.

I am informed by the Industrial Development Authority that it is a condition of all grant agreements that machinery and equipment for which a grant has been paid should not be removed from the site of the grant-aided undertaking, without the prior consent of the IDA.

If in the event of a closure, however, a company has repaid IDA grants in full, it is free to dispose of the assets which had been grant-aided in whatever manner it wishes.