asked the Minister for Finance if funding is being made available to implement the recommendations in the EC economic and social committee of the European Communities report of the border region.

I presume the Deputy is referring to funding from the European Community. As you are aware the Special Border Areas Programme which is due for completion this year is partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund. A number of the recommendations in the report referred to by the Deputy are being implemented within this programme, as will a proposal which is currently under discussion and which, if accepted, would involve the granting of about IR£23 million in aid from the European Regional Development Fund towards the supply and use of natural gas in the Border areas.

On completion of the Special Border Areas Programme, Border areas will, of course, continue to benefit from aid from the Community's general structural funds, that is the Regional Fund, the Social Fund and the Agricultural Guidance Fund.

Would the Minister agree that there are a number of recommendations in the report regarding agricultural development on a joint venture basis? Would he not agree that a Common Agricultural Policy for the entire country would make sense? Is it not true that this Government have not yet examined those recommendations in depth?

The report included a number of recommendations over a very wide range. It was debated in this House on 21 and 22 February last and the Dáil passed a motion recommending that the report be noted and that the recommendations be fully considered. As I have indicated, a number of the areas identified in the report as areas for action are already covered by the Special Border Areas Programme.

While I agree that some of the recommendations and the proposal for the extension of natural gas have been covered by finance from the special fund, the projects about which I am asking which are agricultural production based seem to be a novel idea. Should they not be examined at least by both parties when there has been so much talk, especially over the last week, about cross-Border development and co-operation?

There are a number of areas in the report where proposals were made which would fall to be covered by other structural funds of the Community; both the Social Fund and the Agricultural Guidance Fund would be areas from which other projects could possibly be supported. I may not be 100 per cent up to date on this but to my knowledge no specific projects on the agricultural side of the kind set out in the Economic and Social Committee's report have been submitted for FEOGA aid, maybe because for one reason or another they would not necessarily qualify.

I am merely suggesting that the setting up of those projects be examined. Aid is not required. It could be done between both Departments.

I agree with the Deputy's concern to ensure that development projects are brought forward, but it does not lie with my Department or, indeed, the Department of Agriculture to bring these forward. It requires a promoter with a product in mind to come forward before we can make a decision on whether the project should be submitted for aid under any one of the structural funds.