Finances available under the National Development Plan are "more than adequate" to implement the report of the Donegal Employment Initiative Task Force but some policy changes advocated have yet to be agreed, according to task force chairman Mr Michael McLoone.
After a meeting this week between task force members and the Tanaiste, Mr McLoone told The Irish Times he was encouraged by the commitment shown by Ms Harney "to go ahead with the implementation of the task force report, and to give it a comprehensive and specific response rather than a general one".
The task force was established by the Tanaiste in response to more than 1,000 job losses in the textile industry in Co Donegal, mainly in Fruit of the Loom plants. Unemployment in the county, at 20 per cent, is more than twice the national average.
The task force report, published in July, recommended a seven-year development strategy for the county and called for an allocation of £732 million up to 2006 to pay for the investment priorities recommended.
Mr McLoone said it was agreed that specific responses to the task force report would not be given by the Government until January, when the various operational programmes to implement the National Development Plan were being drawn up. He was "fairly confident", however, that the money requested would be available. He also believed that the principle of a seven-year development strategy for the county would be endorsed.
This week's meeting raised questions about what has become of the 1,000-plus redundant workers. A "tracking system" has proved ineffective because the workers have not kept in touch with the task force. Of some 960 who took part in skills analysis interviews with FAS, only about 200 have taken up the offer of retraining, Mr McLoone said.
Also, some 50 per cent of the workers had not appeared on the live register and there was no way of knowing if they had got jobs. Mr McLoone said the question of why so few had availed of retraining opportunities and why so many were also not on the live register would have to be answered.
Progress in attracting investors to Co Donegal was also reviewed and Mr McLoone said there had been a "huge increase" over the past year in the number of potential investors brought to the county by development agencies.
In presenting the task force report in July, Mr McLoone called for policy changes to allow Donegal "to offer higher financial incentives than any other county in Ireland, except for those lagging as far behind".
He also said then that if disadvantaged areas like Donegal were to catch up, regional and county targets would have to be set in future economic planning. The jobs target set by the task force was viewed as "unrealistic" by State agencies.
The only target set by the IDA as part of its strategy of focusing on the regions is that it will try to bring 50 per cent of all new greenfield investment to the 13-county Border, Midland, and Western (BMW) region.
On differentiating incentives, the only officially-stated difference is that set by the EU allowing maximum State aid of 40 per cent to inward investors in the BMW region and half that or less elsewhere.
Many in counties like Donegal would question why it is not clearly stated official policy that centres like Galway, Dundalk and Drogheda in the BMW region will not be able to offer the same incentives as counties where serious economic problems exist. It is also against a backdrop where, for years, very little or no inward investment was brought to counties in the north-west.