Where it appears to any Northern Ireland department that adequate provision has not been made for meeting the requirements of industrial undertakings carried on or to be carried on (including the requirements of persons employed or likely to be employed in such undertakings) in respect of any basic service for which that department is responsible, that department may, in accordance with arrangements approved by the Department of Finance and Personnel and without prejudice to any powers exercisable under any other statutory provision, make grants or loans, or both, towards the cost of providing or improving such basic service in such manner and subject to such terms and conditions (including, in the case of a grant, conditions for repayment in specified circumstances) as it may consider expedient for enabling those provisions or improvements to be made.