Would the Minister of State like to indicate to the House what kind of funds he and his fellow Ministers for culture envisage as being available from the European Social Fund?

The European Social Fund would operate through various schemes in order to help out artists, so there is a very large fund there. It is a question of seeking to encourage larger sections of that fund that now exists being channelled through for the purpose. We found a great deal of goodwill on this and the various Ministers involved, the Minister for Labour in our case, were very sympathetic towards this line. We had this resolution adopted and we hope it will have a beneficial effect.

Are any figures mentioned?

The fund is very large. Of course, we will get only a small slice of it at the moment.

Is the very large sum specifically for the arts?

No, there are no funds specifically for the arts. There is a specific area, very badly funded, within the President's Department dealing with culture and the arts, but the British and the Danes object to expanding the EC to cover the arts and culture areas and that is very difficult to overcome. Therefore, they are reluctant to allow any increased funding. That is why we during our Presidency directed our attempts to getting more funds from the existing Social Fund to which there could be no objection.