Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1980 > Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities > Report No. 75 - Statutory Instruments [19]

REPORT

Introduction

1. The Joint Committee has examined the Commission’s proposal for a Council Decision concerning an interim programme to combat poverty [COM (79) 657 final]. The Committee understands that this proposal is to be considered by the Council of Ministers at a meeting to be held on 9th instant.

2. A detailed examination of the proposal has been carried out for the Joint Committee by its Sub-Committee on Social, Environmental and Miscellaneous Matters under the Chairmanship of Senator Mary Robinson. Apart from considering written memoranda received from the National Committee on Pilot Schemes to Combat Poverty, the Education/Rights Centre, Cork and the Department of Social Welfare, the Sub-Committee discussed the proposals with representatives of the Department and with Rev. Michael Mernagh, Director, Combat-Poverty Committee and representatives of sixteen groups which are associated with the Combat-Poverty Committee in carrying out its programme and which are listed in the Appendix to this report. The Joint Committee is indebted to Senator Robinson and her Sub-Committee for their work.

Original Programme

3. It was Ireland who first proposed a European Anti-Poverty Programme. In the Social Action Programme adopted by the Council of Ministers in January, 1974 one of the priority actions included was the implementation of different specific measures to combat poverty by preparing pilot schemes. In July, 1975 the Council adopted Decision 75/458/EEC which authorised the Commission to promote and provide financial assistance for a programme of pilot schemes and studies within the limits of the amounts provided in the Budgets for 1975 and 1976. In November, 1975 the Commission approved a list of twenty-one pilot schemes proposed by the Member States and two cross-national studies proposed by itself and accepted by the governments concerned.

4. As the majority of the approved schemes had not been completed at the end of the first two years the Council extended the programme for a further three years by Decision 77/779/EEC of 12th December, 1977. On the basis of a further Council Decision of 29th March, 1978 the Commission adopted a further series of pilot schemes and studies bringing the total number up to twenty-nine.

5. The programme is due to come to an end on 1st December, 1980. The Commission intends by 30th June, 1981 at the latest to submit to the Council a final report on its evaluation of the results obtained. It is not expected that the Council will be able to begin its own assessment of the programme before the beginning of 1982.

6. Pilot schemes carried out under the programme are intended “to test and develop new methods of helping people beset by poverty”. The pilot studies seek “to improve understanding of the nature, causes, scope and mechanics of poverty”. People beset by poverty are those “whose resources are so small as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life of the Member State in which they live”. Resources comprise “goods, cash income, plus services from public and private sources”.

Implementation of Programme in Ireland

7. In this country the National Committee on Pilot Schemes to Combat Poverty, established in May, 1974, was given the task of devising a programme in accordance with the EEC Decisions and it has been operating a number of projects and studies. It is directly involved in six locally based projects and four national studies and has contracted out a further twelve projects and two national studies to other bodies. As far as the EEC is concerned the Commission, for administrative reasons, identifies the activities of the Committee entitled to EEC aid as falling within three main projects, namely, the Community Action Research, Welfare Rights and Supplementary Welfare Allowances Projects. The EEC bears 50 per cent of the cost in the case of the first two of the aforementioned and 25 per cent in the case of the third. Expenditure on the Committee’s activities had reached about IR£1.8 million by the end of 1979 of which IR£540,000 had been recouped from the EEC.

Interim Programme

8. The Commission intends the interim programme to span the period between the end of the present programme on 1st December, 1980 and the implementation of whatever conclusions the Council reaches following its evaluation of that programme for which the earliest foreseeable date is the latter half of 1982. The proposed Council Decision would allow the Commission, within the limits of appropriations authorised by the budgetary authority, to “promote, finance or undertake projects or studies related to certain aspects identified under the programme to combat poverty pursuant to Decision 75/458/EEC and which are suitable for examination in greater depth”. The Decision would “apply to operations for which the Commission has decided for the first time before 1st December, 1980 to grant financial assistance”. As in the present programme, it is envisaged that the Community will pay up to 50 per cent of the estimated cost of each pilot scheme or study but may exceed that amount for pilot studies of exceptional importance for the Community as a whole or embracing more than one Member State. The cost to the Community budget is estimated at 9 MEUA.

9. In its explanatory memorandum the Commission indicates that, if the interim programme is adopted by the Council, “resources will be concentrated upon a small number of fields or aspects where there is a strong possibility of improving the situation in the short term”. By way of illustration it mentions the following:—

(i)the use of poverty indicators, which have emerged from the pilot schemes and studies to indicate persons or areas in need of special assistance;

(ii)the administrative integration of social insurance and social assistance services at the local level, and

(iii)a serious study of the reasons why social aid does not always reach target populations.

Views of the Joint Committee

10. The Joint Committee agrees completely with the Commission on the need for an interim programme and hopes that the Council will reach a similar conclusion. However, it is concerned about the manner in which it is intended that the interim programme be implemented. The Committee understands that the Commission has already decided that (a) in principle no schemes included in the first programme would be prolonged and (b) significant new pilot schemes would not be possible because of the short duration of the interim programme. It would appear that the interim programme would be confined to pilot studies undertaken jointly by the Member States on different facets of poverty and the remedial policies pursued by the Member States.

11. In its discussion with the groups involved in the Irish programme the Joint Committee was informed that many of the projects involved have been effectively in operation for only two years. While stressing that they had no desire unduly to prolong their activities several groups insisted that more time was needed to consolidate or to complete new aspects of different projects. In the Committee’s view it is wrong to decide in principle that none of the existing projects should receive any aid under the proposed interim programme of the Community. Whether such projects should continue to be aided ought to depend on the stage a particular project has reached and the contribution which the further work contemplated is likely to make towards achieving the overall aims of the programme. The Committee is concerned that the completion of useful projects could be in jeopardy if Community aid were cut off. In that event such projects would be dependent solely on finance either from local sources or from the Irish Government and the Committee fears that, at the least, some regrettable retrenchment would be inevitable.

12. The Committee therefore urges the Irish Government to propose that a more flexible approach be adopted by the Council of Ministers at their meeting on 9th June, 1980 so that the two year interim programme can include both the research studies recommended by the Commission and also continued Community funding of those pilot projects which following a written evaluation by the National Committee on Pilot Schemes to Combat Poverty are judged by that Committee to merit further support in the interim period. The Committee further urges the Irish Government to press for the necessary increase in allocation of funds from the Community budget for the two year programme which this approach would necessitate.

Acknowledgements

13. In considering the Commission’s proposal the Joint Committee received a great deal of assistance from interested bodies and groups and it wishes to express its sincere thanks to the National Committee on Pilot Schemes to Combat Poverty, the Education/Rights Centre and all those groups which are listed in the Appendix to this Report.

(Signed) ALEXIS FITZGERALD,

Chairman of the Joint Committee.

4th June, 1980.