Government Ministers will be told next week that a dramatic initiative is necessary if progress is to be made on bridging the economic gap between the west and east of the State.
Preliminary findings for a report to be published in April by the Western Development Commission (WDC) indicate the gap may even be widening despite the Government's policy of balanced regional development.
Commenting on a Forum of Western Ministers meeting to be held next Tuesday, the chief executive of the WDC, Mr Liam Scollan, said initial findings for the report would be discussed.
"The incremental approach which is being taken is probably not going to be sufficient to reverse long-standing trends. Some dramatic initiative is going to be needed," Mr Scollan said.
He said the findings indicated that in all the key areas, such as business development, infrastructure and energy, the western region was lagging far behind.
The WDC is a State agency charged with spearheading economic development in the seven western counties from Donegal to Clare. One of its initiatives has been the Forum of Western Ministers, through which it meets regularly with Cabinet and junior ministers from these seven counties to try to push western issues up the Government agenda.
Mr Scollan said some important changes had been achieved such as the fact that the IDA now sets regional targets - it aims to bring 50 per cent of all new greenfield investment to the Border, Midlands and Western region. The WDC also welcomed the emphasis on balanced regional development contained in the National Development Plan. "A lot has been achieved but what we need now is key initiatives in business development, infrastructure and energy and these need to be driven in a co-ordinated fashion. The means of delivery needs greater attention and acceleration," Mr Scollan said.
He said progress had also been made on infrastructure but much remained to be done. "There is a growing roll-out of telecommunications infrastructure, for example, but it is still far from adequate, especially in key areas.
"In the case of the roads, certainly they are far from adequate and the key here is that we need a fairly dramatic and focused approach," he added.
Tourism is one area the commission has already focused on and its recommendation that a high-level steering group be appointed to form a common strategy for the western counties has been taken up. Its report on tourism unveiled in December highlighted inefficiencies, with too many organisations operating without any clear leadership or strategy.
Mr Scollan said he believed the Government had the right intentions in achieving balanced regional development but there was a need for "a framework and a focus for it to happen".
In various reports, the WDC has highlighted the large disparities between the east and west. For example, when jobs growth was rising rapidly in the east in 1997, the combined efforts of all the State agencies produced a net gain of only 88 jobs in the six western counties apart from Galway.
IDA figures for the north-west region last year showed a net jobs loss and the numbers employed in IDA-backed companies in Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal fell by 1,240 since 1996.