Ireland's regionalisation proposals are to be discussed at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.

Officials from the Department of Finance and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) will meet Eurostat officials. The meeting follows strong criticism of Eurostat by the Minister for Finance in the Dail yesterday.

"I find it somewhat disingenuous for Eurostat, a statistical agency, to reply to us and to enter into matters which my officials and I feel is outside their remit," said Mr McCreevy. "Other countries have succeeded in retaining Objective 1 status for regions they have put forward whose average GDP is 74.8 and 74.9 per cent; mirabile dictu, they came just beneath the threshold."

The Minister said the Government's reply to Eurostat, on foot of the letter it had received, maintained the Irish position. "Our application includes 15 counties that we are looking to keep as an Objective 1 region, and that is the basis on which we have replied to Eurostat. We will continue to press for that, and, as was explained at the time, that region qualifies in all aspects, in our view, for Objective 1 status."

Mr Sean Barrett (FG, Dun Laoghaire) said he agreed with the whole idea of regionalisation. He asked what sort of negotiations could be undertaken with a body which was purely there to state facts and figures. "Is their argument based on facts and figures, that the 15 counties bring us above the allowed limits?"

The Minister replied: "Eurostat is a statistical agency and one would have expected the letter would have referred to legitimate questions you raised. There was no reference to any figure in the letter. It is a discursive letter . . . There was not one reference to any figure, bar the date at the top of the letter."

Mr Jimmy Deenihan (FG, Kerry North) warned that Ireland was running out of time, given the matter had to be agreed by March 25th, and he urged the Minister to become personally involved. "We have four weeks. On your back, Minister, this rests. If we fail, you are going to be blamed."

Mr Louis Belton (FG, Longford-Roscommon) urged the Minister to get on a plane to Brussels to negotiate on behalf of the State.

Mr McCreevy said a reply had been sent to Eurostat, and his officials, as well as officials from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), would meet Eurostat officials next week. "I will be keeping in touch, and, if necessary, I will go to Brussels as well."

Mr Seymour Crawford (FG, Cavan-Monaghan) said the "debacle" over regionalisation was solely to keep the South Kerry Independent TD, Mr Jackie HealyRae, "on the rails". He urged the Minister to stop negotiating with Mr Healy-Rae and get down to the business of making sure that a regional approach, acceptable to Eurostat and to Brussels, was drawn up to ensure that the Border regions, the west and the midlands would not lose out.

Mr McCreevy said the matter of the sub-regionalisation of the State was set in train by the ministers' and secretaries' group in March 1998, and the information was compiled in June. "That particular assembling of information included Kerry and Clare as part of the western region. I can come across no representation from anyone, from any side of the House, about the inclusion."

Mr Jim Higgins (FG, Mayo) said a major problem was that Ireland's application was almost too late. Wales and Cornwall had submitted their applications 18 months ago and had been told everything was in order. "We are still dithering with our application and with the man from South Kerry."

Mr Higgins asked if the support for Ireland's application from the EU Commissioner, Mr Padraig Flynn, had been modified or tempered in any way by virtue of the ongoing dispute with his former colleagues in government.

Mr McCreevy said Mr Flynn was a bigger man than Mr Higgins had made him out to be. "Whatever differences Commissioner Flynn may have with members, I can assure the deputy he has been 110 per cent behind the proposals and has done more than anyone else in Europe to further the Irish cause."

Earlier, on the Order of Business, the Government rejected demands by Mr Denis Naughten (FG, Longford-Roscommon) that it publish the correspondence it received from Eurostat.

The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said publication of the correspondence would establish, inter alia, whether the Government had even made an application in the formal sense for the inclusion of Clare and Kerry with the other counties.

The Taoiseach said there were ongoing discussions with Eurostat and the EU Commission relating to structural and cohesion funds and the CAP.

Mr Bruton said the Minister for Finance had reflected on the integrity of Eurostat, which was a very unwise thing for an Irish minister to have done. "I think the House needs to know the full content of the correspondence."

Mr Proinsias De Rossa (Labour, Dublin North West) said the Government's proposal had been sent back to it as inadequate and incompetent. The House should debate the issue next week before the Government constructed another application based on the same kind of petty politics which underpinned the last one. He said the Taoiseach should accept "the game is up".

Mr Ahern replied: "I'm glad that it is not Deputy De Rossa's party, whichever that is, which is involved in these negotiations . . . that you put your hands up before you start . . ."