asked the Minister for Labour the funds made available to date to the Youth Employment Agency from the youth employment levy since its inception.

The Youth Employment Agency were established in March 1982 and the youth employment levy was introduced in April 1982. In 1982 the Government included a sum of £9.02 million in respect of expenditure by the agency in the provision of £41.0 million for training and employment of young persons in the Department of Labour's Estimate for that year. This year the Government included £15.0 million for such expenditure in the provision of £77.0 million in respect of the same services in my Department's Estimate for 1983. These provisions are over and above the allocations in these years to other bodies providing training and employment services for young persons.

Is the figure of £15 million inclusive or exclusive of the £11 million withdrawn from the agency by Government decision, as announced some time in July of this year?

First of all, £11 million was not withdrawn from the agency. No such decision was announced in July or any other time. I will be dealing with this in more detail on a later question. My reply deals with the amount of money allocated and made available to the agency, so it is exclusive of decisions taken in Barretstown.

Would the moneys to be made available this year have been £26 million had the decision made in July by the Government not been made?

The question asks me the funds available to date to the Youth Employment Agency from the youth employment levy, so my answer is exclusive of any decision taken in Barretstown.

I detect some little effort by the Minister to conceal something from the House, deliberately or otherwise. If this question had been put down in June last regarding the allocation——

The answer would have been exactly the same.

It would have been £15 million?

Yes.

In other words, the Government's decision as reported was a bluff.

The question asks the amount of funds made available to the agency. As of January last £15 million was available to the agency. Any decision later in the year had nothing to do with a total sum available to the agency at any time in their history.

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