Ireland is now split into three European Regions: the Border Midlands and Western region; the Southern and Eastern region; and Northern Ireland. Because of this, the Cabinet's visit to the BMW region will also include a visit to Co Sligo to meet groups engaged in combating disadvantage on both sides of the Border. In addition to the £13.4 billion share-out for the region as part of the National Development Plan, the Government proposes to run an extra operational programme to draw down £83 million of structural funds being made available for the Peace Programme in the Border counties.
The National Development Plan includes what it calls the "common Chapter": a section dedicated to the same goals of increasing prosperity in the Border counties. This is the second EU-sponsored Peace Programme, and its total value to the island is estimated at £400 million between 2000 and 2005.
It's estimated that at least £740 million has been invested in Northern Ireland and the six southern Border counties during the period 1995 to 1999. This was largely made up of EU funding with State and private funds co-financing development projects. It is all a long way from the days when Patrick Kavanagh left the "stoney grey soil of Monaghan" and walked to Dublin in search of survival. And for those of us who secretly hanker for a five-minute drive through open countryside - or better still a walk - there is now the very real possibility that we can up sticks and take our children to go and live in Leitrim.
With the prospect of jobs being available through increased infrastructure and positive discrimination to lure industries to the region, the realisation that there is often a better quality of life to be had in the BMW region is beginning to dawn.
The Peace Programme is an EU-supported community initiative for the benefit of Northern Ireland and the Border counties of Donegal, Cavan-Leitrim, Louth-Monaghan and Sligo. Responsibility for the implementation of the special support programme throughout the southern Border counties rests jointly with the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA), Area Development Management (ADM) and county councils.
A development team with a central office in EU House in Monaghan provides funding for individual projects, including reconciliation work, support for the inclusion of the marginalised cross-border community and trade development and vocational training, education and employment. According to Dr Tony Crooks, chief executive officer of ADM, a third of rural people who depend on agriculture for their living will find that farming alone will not provide them with a living sufficient to keep them in rural areas. Because of this, a number of pilot initiatives concentrate on improving the incomes of smallholders. Another pilot programme concentrates on regenerating rural areas through managed repopulation. Yet another concentrates on a range of pilot schemes to supply public transport in rural locations. The Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke, has recently announced additional funding of about £3 million to be used as seed capital by ADM to promote public transport start-ups in rural areas. The Government has also introduced what it calls "rural proofing", an inter-departmental group which is to oversee all government policies to ensure that they do conform to the policy of maintaining rural communities.
According to the National Development Plan, further co-operation will come from the establishment of the North-South bodies, which were recently set up under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, in tandem with the establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The 1994-1999 interreg element programme established three cross-Border networks from the 18 local authorities north and south of the Border. This involves officials from local authorities, the local councils and the voluntary sector working to integrate the communities North and South, making them "blind" to the Border. One of the best indications that this can work is that the co-operation is supported by the Northern Ireland Minister for Regional Development, Peter Robinson, who says it makes "good sense".
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