The need for investment and infrastructural spending in the Border, Midland and West (BMW) region has grown more urgent as the Coalition Government concentrates its attention on major projects in the Dublin region.
Some 1,200 jobs have been lost in Donegal in less than two years, mainly in clothing and textiles and involving low-skilled workers. The same malaise affects much of the western seaboard, as some of the brightest and the best leave home. IBEC has called for investment in higher education institutions and in research and development programmes in order to move employment up the value-added chain and to attract new technology companies. Overall job losses in the BMW region reflect not just the continued neglect that the region has suffered, but also the low-value nature of much of the employment; manufacturing processes which, on competitiveness, are easily lost to low-cost countries.
As negotiations on Government spending estimates for 2004 enter their final phase, the allocation of scarce resources must not be based solely on financial return for the investment made. If regional development is to mean anything, and the State is to acquire a healthy population balance, then social considerations must - on occasion - outweigh economic return. The National Spatial Strategy is a key element in that regard, but the evidence so far would suggest a lack of political commitment to investing in the deprived regions.
The National Development Plan (NDP) was to have discriminated in favour of the BMW region. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, gave firm commitments in that regard. But, in the first three years of the plan, there was a 41 per cent shortfall in spending on infrastructural projects in the most deprived regions, while work in the developed areas went ahead. The economic gap between east and west has continued to widen, following the downturn of the economy. Aggressive remedial action is required.
The ESRI's mid-term review of the National Development Plan concentrated on value for money. That was what the Government asked for, even if some Ministers did not like its findings. But a central conclusion was that a return of 14 per cent is being secured for the money spent. On that basis, infrastructural investment, even in underdeveloped areas, makes good economic sense.
A poor transport and communications network has, traditionally, inhibited development in the BMW region. But the development of third-level colleges, technology parks and research and development programmes are equally important in today's world. There are indications the European Investment Bank may fund the kind of educational research and development projects that are so desperately required in peripheral areas. In the same way, funding from the National Pension Reserve Fund could be applied to good effect. But the major responsibility for investment lies with the Government. All that is needed is vision and political commitment.