I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 7 together.
As the Deputy knows, An Bord Tráchtála offers a comprehensive service to Irish industry in the areas of export promotion and marketing, and details of this and other related An Bord Tráchtála activities can be gleaned from the recently published An Bord Tráchtála Annual Review and Outlook. I intend to confine my reply to new initiatives which have been recently put in place.
As a country, we need to look more and more to indigenous industry to provide the engine for sustainable growth, and this is particularly true in regard to growth in international markets. It is, therefore, in this direction that the attention and efforts of both my Department and An Bord Tráchála will be firmly focused in the coming years. Our mutual target is to increase indigenous exports by 50 per cent by the end of 1996, from the current IR£3.7 billion to IR£5.5 billion.
To achieve this target, we will need to do many things, but first we must improve the level of our activity in international markets and our competence in selling there. This requires a greater promotional spend and, to meet this, An Bord Tráchtála will this year receive £37.828 million in Exchequer grant-in-aid, an increase of 11 per cent on the 1992 outturn and over 80 per cent higher than the 1988 figure. Given the many constraints and pressures on Exchequer spending at present, this represents a major commitment on the Government's behalf to supporting the efforts of Irish companies abroad.
With the creation of the new Department of Tourism and Trade, a fresh impetus is also being given to the pursuit of a more effective co-ordination of Ireland's economic interests in overseas markets. I have launched a consultancy study to make recommendations to me, in two to three months time, on what should be done to improve our effectiveness in selling our country, our services and our mechandise abroad. I will consider these recommendations and formulate proposals for Government to introduce change wherever it is needed.
Furthermore, to assist Irish companies to compete in Europe, I have established a single market unit in my Department to provide the necessary co-ordination and problem-solving functions to ensure that the concerns of Irish business and industry are fully met.
On 1 March this year, I also announced the setting-up of the EUROPLACE Programme, which is intended to increase full-time salespeople in Europe from 60 to 150 in three years. The objective is that Irish companies will develop a permanent presence in the marketplace. An Bord Tráchtála has estimated that each new salesperson will generate in the region of IR£3 million per annum in extra sales. I have also initiated a customer support scheme, which will place back-up customer support staff in companies which do significant business with European customers. It is planned to place people in 150 companies over three years at a total cost of IR£1.5 million, of which An Bord Tráchtála will contribute up to IR£600,000.
I also want to help small firms who are trying to make their first breakthrough into the European market. With this in mind, I have asked An Bord Tráchtála to fund up to ten group marketing schemes representing 50 exporters over the next three years. It will co-finance market-based agents which represent a number of companies. The total cost of this scheme over the three years will be IR£1.4 million, of which An Bord Tráchtála will contribute up to IR£500,000.
On the promotional front, I will support An Bord Tráchtála in its biggest ever promotional programme, involving 120 major sales generating initiatives in which more than 1,300 Irish exporters will participate and which will include a strong Irish presence at leading trade fairs, trade missions, buyer trips to Ireland and programmes for first-time exporters. For the first time, Ireland will have a stand at the China Aviation Fair in Beijing. There will be trade missions to Eastern Europe, the CIS, the Asia-Pacific area, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. In relation to the US market, over 70 Irish companies, North and South, will take part in a major promotional drive termed "The Look is Ireland" in Chicago in June.
A very important element of our export promotion policy in the coming years will be the EC's Structural Funds contribution to our marketing programmes. Officials in my Department and An Bord Tráchtála are currently working on a fresh and innovative marketing programme in order to maintain a high level of Structural Funds support for our marketing initiatives abroad in the period 1994-99.
I am confident that all these measures and initiatives will further boost export growth, particularly in the indigenous sector, and will continue to contribute significantly to employment here.
With regard to the question of An Bord Tráchtála's responsibilities in relation to other Departments, it will continue, in accordance with section 6 of the Trade and Marketing Promotion Act, 1991, to assist, wherever necessary and-or appropriate, the export efforts of any sector which is the responsibility of any other Minister.