§ Lord Bruce-Gardyneasked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the aggregate cost to date of all forms of taxpayer subvention provided to the Lear Fan Corporation; and what is the number of persons currently employed by that corporation in Northern Ireland.
Viscount LongNo payments have been made to Lear Fan Corporation (US), which is a subsidiary of Lear Fan Limited, or to Lear Fan Corporation which is a subsidiary of Lear Avia Corporation.
Under the various agreements concluded prior to September 1982, Her Majesty's Government provided Lear Fan Limited with funds totalling £25.3 million and a bank guarantee of $15 million. Her Majesty's Government agreed in September 1982 to provide further public funds up to a maximum of $30 million in the form of loan capital, matching private sector funds of $60 million, and to extend the bank guarantee to 31st December 1986. To date, the company has received $20858 million from public funds under the September 1982 agreement.
In addition to the selective assistance since the inception of the project, the following amounts of nonselective assistance under other schemes have been paid:
£ Training on Employer's Premises Scheme 659,264 Key Workers Scheme 52,055 Security Staff Grant Scheme (discontinued for manufacturing companies on 1.3.81) 3,070 Statutory redundancy payment refund 166 Temporary Short Time Working Compensation Scheme 233,982 Total paid to date £948,537 At present, the company has over 380 employees in Northern Ireland.