Minister rejects claim west is being neglected

The Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr Éamon Ó Cuív, has said he "utterly refutes" claims by a western alliance of business interests in relation to the National Development Plan.

He was responding to a report that chambers of commerce in the west may run independent candidates in the next general election if the Government does not revise its priorities under the NDP.

As reported in The Irish Times, the United Chambers of Commerce agreed to seek sanction for the move to run high-profile candidates at a meeting early last week in Ballina, Co Mayo. The group represents chambers in the west, north-west and north-east, the Western Roads Action Committee and the Mayo Industries Group.

Representatives at the meeting expressed frustration and anger at the lack of priority attached by the Government to improved infrastructure in the western region. The Taoiseach is due to meet the Western Development Commission tomorrow, but this is months after its critical report on the growing divide between east and west.

The united chambers presented its own study to the Government's Cross-Departmental Team on Infrastructure last July which highlighted three areas of "critical infrastructural deficiency" in the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region. Its recommendations were consistent with those of the Western Development Commission and in line with a similar message coming from the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). The report called on the Government to bring forward its mid-term review of the NDP, taking on board its recommendations. "We cannot wait until 2003," the report concluded.

The group's spokesman, Mr Marc MacSharry, chief executive of Sligo Chamber of Commerce, says it waited 11 weeks for a reply which failed to address any of the recommendations. "Instead, the Government staunchly defended the National Development Plan, which allocates €449,487 per sq km to the south and east region and €184,112 per sq km in the Border, Midlands and Western region, but portrays "balanced regional development" as one of its key objectives," he said.

The group wrote again over 10 weeks ago to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste expressing its dissatisfaction, and requesting that Mr Ahern and Ms Harney ensure that its report was replied to in detail.

All it has had from the Government is a two-line acknowledgement. There has been an announcement about a €25 million Clar programme for rural regeneration, and some "vague positive statements" in relation to the extension of broadband through the Atlantic Corridor, and provision of gas. However, no time-frame in relation to gas has been given, the chambers say.

Mr Ó Cuív told The Irish Times that he "utterly refuted" the claim that no action had been taken by the Government under the NDP in the BMW region.

"The fact that the Taoiseach is meeting the Western Development Commission this week is indicative of the weight he puts behind it," he said.

The Minister also defended criticism of the Clar rural regeneration programme which he initiated last year, and said he estimated that it would be worth up to €50 million in extra investment in peripheral areas this year - equating to over €250 million over five years.

"Over the next three months, plans which have been in the system for some time will come to completion, and there will be announcements about major infastructural developments in the west, as well as a rapid roll-out of the Clar programme," Mr Ó Cuív said.

Last Friday, a top-up for non-national roads announced by the Minister for the Environment included 20 million in road grants in Clar areas, he said.

"This allocation shows clearly that the principle of reprioritisation really works," he said.

The Minister said he had accepted the facts outlined in the WDC report, The State of the West but felt that a recommendation to establish more "bodies to analyse the situation" would serve no useful purpose.