Kerry TD `running the show', says FF deputy

The Fianna Fail TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, Mr Liam Aylward, has expressed bitter disappointment at the exclusion of both counties in his constituency from the Government's regionalisation plans.

"There is no point in being a Fianna Fail backbencher anymore," he said last night.

"Jackie Healy-Rae is running the show. He is running Fianna Fail. It's kind of obvious. That's the way it seems.

"Why should Kerry and Clare be included?" he asked, pointing out that the south-east of his constituency was at least as deserving as either of those counties. "Who conceded that?" he asked of the inclusion of both.

He had raised the inclusion of areas in his own constituency "many times at party meetings" and had yet to receive an explanation as to why they were excluded.

"It is a terrible blow to every Fianna Fail backbencher if Jackie Healy-Rae can do that," he said. ail backbenchers) worth anything?" he asked, "there's no point to Fianna Fail backbenchers anymore. "Jackie "Healy-Rae has all the clout."

Geraldine Kennedy, Political Correspondent, adds: Fine Gael has accused the Government of fuelling inter-county economic rivalries that "do not serve the true national interest" in its handling of the regionalisation issue.

A statement from the party's front bench, after its meeting yesterday, said this could have been avoided if the Government had been transparent in its approach. There would have been a greater willingness to accept its decisions.

The Labour spokesman on finance, Mr Derek McDowell, said it was now blatantly clear that there was no economic or social rationale behind the Government's plan. It was a particularly cynical exercise by any standards.

The Government had ignored the warning by the Commissioner, Ms Monika Wulf-Mathies, that "subsidy shopping" would not be looked on favourably by the EU.

The leader of Democratic Left, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, said the Government's decision to draw an artificial line through the heart of the State for purposes of the next round of EU funds was a cynical move. The Government had made a nonsense of its own claims to have a coherent policy on regionalisation by creating, for purely political purposes, a totally artificial region that leapt over the Shannon estuary and by-passed impoverished communities in the city of Limerick.

The Independent TD who supports the minority Government, Mr Healy-Rae, said this was no Gregory deal for the 1990s. It was a deal "with South Kerry rightfully where it belongs in Objective 1".

They were jeopardising no increase for any person or county by the inclusion of Kerry, the South Kerry TD added.

Mr Tony Gregory, the Dublin Independent TD, said that by regionalising the State, the Government was limiting flexibility and effectively cutting off the Dublin area, which was the greatest area of social and employment disadvantage. It set urban areas against rural areas.