ALONG succession of reports, partnership boards and commissions to develop the west have come and gone in recent years, prompting a deep and at times corrosive cynicism about such initiatives.
Fighting such cynicism is one of the major tasks facing the Western Development Commission, which was set up at the start of the year and has already run into controversy.
The commission is the successor to the Western Development Partnership Board, which prepared an ambitious action plan for the region. In turn, the WDPB was the successor to the 1992 "Developing the West Together" initiative sponsored by the western bishops.
The action plan which was largely adopted by the Government in May 1996, proposed a £200 million investment fund to "unlock a powerhouse of regional and social energy" over a 20 year time span.
The fund would stimulate growth by advancing startup loans to small and medium sized enterprises, ploughing the money back into the fund as it was returned.
But the recent resignation of the commission's acting chief executive, Mr John Higgins, has increased concern among community development activists about the implementation of the plan.
Mr Higgins, a brother of the Fine Gael TD, Mr Jim Higgins, was the CEO of the previous partnership board. He was an out spoken critic of what he perceived to be inertia in Government departments and semistate organisations in relation to western development, and a passionate advocate of a coordinated and integrated strategy for the regions.
His departure weakens the Western Development Commission, according to Mr Sean Hannick, a member of the WDPB who was not appointed to the new commission. Mr Hannick is MD of Killala Precision Components Ltd, and has been involved in community development in Mayo for decades.
To support his argument, he points to a statement from the Western Development Group, an umbrella grouping of farming and community development interests. It points out that the seven member commission appointed in January was five short of the number recommended in the action plan and "the first deviation" from it.
There was "an unexpected minimum continuity" in appointees to the commission from its predecessor, the WDPB. The resignation of Mr Higgins "has severed further the continuity with the thinking" behind the action plan, according to the statement.
Mr Hannick says the last thing the west needs is a new commission to start tinkering around with a previously agreed action plan, or, worse still, for it to commission its own report. Action is needed, not more words, he says.
"We have a fear that the process will be sidelined by senior civil servants, and we have seen nothing yet to suggest any different," he says.
There are other concerns about the speed with which Mr Higgins's successor, Mr Liam Scollan, has been appointed. His appointment was announced while one of the commission members, Ms Lisa McAllister, was on her honeymoon.
Ms McAllister is also a member of the Council for the West, a grouping of voluntary development groups which is supported by the western bishops. It is understood the bishops contacted the Department of the Taoiseach to express their concern about the manner in which the announcement was made.
The chairman of the Western Development Commission, Mr Sean Tighe, describes as "unnecessary" the controversy over Mr Higgins's resignation and the appointment of his successor, and says further comment is inappropriate.
He says "considerable progress" has been made since the commission was appointed in January. It has adopted a low profile approach, preferring to concentrate on organisational structures and appointing staff rather than on seeking media attention.
Legislation is being drafted to put the commission on a statutory basis, and this is expected to come before the Oireachtas in the autumn. The promised Western Development Fund will be set up in tandem" with the legislation, and a fund development manager will shortly be appointed, he says.