THE cathaoirleach of the Dublin Regional Authority, Cllr Donal Marren, has called on the Government to realign the regional areas of State and semi state bodies with those of the regional authorities set up in 1994 to encourage the co ordination of public services and review the implementation of EU Structural Funds.
Mr Marren was speaking at the launch yesterday of the Dublin Regional Authority's report, the Compatibility of Regional Boundaries.
He said the report highlighted the fact that agencies like the health boards, the fisheries boards, the regional tourism organisations, FAS, Telecom Eireann and the ESB operate on a regional basis with little consistency in their regional boundaries. This was a barrier to the regional authority undertaking one of its key functions the co ordination of public services within a region.
The report concludes that Dublin is a sub region of a number of agencies regions, such as the Fisheries Board, Telecom Eireann, the Eastern Health Board and ESB. This made for problems in terms of "the cross boundary nature of service provision" and "raises questions as to whether the public service requirements of the Dublin region are adequately tended to".
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