THE Exchequer was forced to pay £210,000 in overdraft payments because EU Social Fund finance arrived late and threatened the existence of training schemes for the disabled, the Dail Committee on Public Accounts heard yesterday.

The committee was told by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, that the National Rehabilitation Board incurred the extra payments in 1994 due to the delays in the allocation of £12 million from Brussels.

The hoard had to seek overdraft facilities in order to keep training schemes going and interest was then charged by the banks. If the overdraft had not been sought, all the board's training schemes would have collapsed.

The board was reimbursed through its ordinary allocation from the Department of Health.

The chief executive of the board, Dr Arthur O'Reilly, said this year's allocation was also late and the 50 per cent of the allocation which should be paid by Brussels in February had not arrived.

Mr Eric Byrne of Democratic Left said if this was a recurrent problem it would cause great distress among the families of disabled people dependent on training courses.

Dr O'Reilly agreed with the committee that it was time the problem was investigated to find its root, whether it be in Brussels or, at the Department of Enterprise and Employment, which was responsible for all training and employment initiatives.

Meanwhile, Dr O'Reilly agreed that while the Civil Service had filled its 3 per cent employment quota for disabled people, most were working at the lower paid jobs.

Dr O'Reilly said the rest of the public service was slow to fill the quota. He was concerned that it was taking so long and was worried about the public attitude to disabled people, which assumed they were not as efficient in doing the job. There were also many work places that were not accessible.