asked the Minister for Labour the amount of money received by his Department from the EEC Social Fund; and if he will give details as to how it has been allocated.

Since our accession to the EEC in 1973 my Department have received £3,457,000 from the European Social Fund. This money helped to finance the Work Experience Programme (£1,892,000), Employment Incentive Scheme (£1,190,000), the Resettlement Assistance Scheme (£292,000) and selection, guidance and placement of trainees (£78,000).

The Industrial Training Authority (AnCO), who are a semi-State body under the auspices of my Department, received £61,845,000 from the fund in the same period towards the cost of their various vocational training programmes. CERT, the national body responsible for co-ordinating education and training for the hotel and catering industries, received £2,695,000 for its operations.

Could the Minister say in relation to the last complete year for which figures are available how much his department got from the Social Funds? For example, did the 1980 figure represent an increase or a decrease on the 1979 figure?

I regret that I have not got a breakdown of that information.