When the Cabinet meets the Border, Midlands and Western Regional Authority in Co Roscommon tomorrow, it will be meeting in a region battered by a century-and-a-half of emigration, bare survival incomes from farming and fisheries, and the recent decline of traditional manufacturing. Even the weather, which has flooded large parts of the midlands, seems to have set itself against those remaining in the region. For Bee Hughes, and the other 112 workers due to lose their jobs in the Barbour Threads factory in Longford, or the 600 workers from the Burlington factory which closed last year, or the 300 workers at the Hawkesbay textile factory in Co Louth due to close next month, it will be hard to work up an enthusiasm for the cavalcade of ministerial Mercedeses which will descend on the region.
Bee and others, such as Mary Ginty, Sean Conaty and Michael and Bernadette Campbell have worked for Barbour Threads for, in some cases, decades. Local SIPTU organiser Seamus McNamee speaks of retraining on FAS courses in Athlone, but he admits for many of the workers in their 40s and 50s, the human cost is high.
"We seem to be forgotten," says Bee Hughes, who is the SIPTU shop steward in the Barbour Threads factory. It recently announced its closure. "Some of us have worked here for decades. There is one person who has worked here since the company started in 1972."
The Government's proposals to spread the economic boom to the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region, by replacing traditional industries, appear to be all about a high-technology future, about fibre-optic cables, energy services, rails and motorways. It is hard stuff to grasp if your life has been spent in the textile industry centred around the Shannon, or indeed in the smallholdings of the Border counties, or if you are now facing the restrictions on fish catches being imposed by the EU. Agricultural incomes are generally low. Even without the National Development Plan, 70,000 jobs throughout the Republic will have to be found between now and 2005 just to replace those moving to the cities to get work - including the 4,000 to 5,000 smallholders and their families who each year give up trying to make a living from their holdings.
In addition to the decline in the numbers of families surviving on smallholdings, there are also difficulties with fisheries. Recent cuts in total allowable catch, imposed by European fisheries ministers last month, had Jason Whooley of the South and West Fish Producers' Association wondering how his members were going to survive. Frank Doyle of the Irish Fishermen's Association described the prospects for fishermen in the BMW region as "difficult for the next three to five years", and while Joey Murrin of the Killybegs Fishermen's Association noted that the cuts were not as bad for the mackerel fleet in the north-west, he still described the industry as being at a basic survival level.
BUT it is the Border area which is the island's poorest. With the exception of Co Louth, which benefits from the Dublin/Belfast economic corridor, the opportunities are poor, the infrastructure is deficient, and there is a dearth of economic activity, education and job opportunities. The Border area has suffered, too, from the conflict in Northern Ireland, with road closures, frequent disruptions of the railway line, different fiscal policies North and South, different currencies and constant security checkpoints. The difficulty for the entire BMW region in the past was that the infrastructure to attract new industries was not there. When the Fitzpatrick report was produced last March, map after map showed a constant lack of resources west of the Shannon, but particularly in the north-west. These included the availability of industrial-grade electricity, high-quality fibre-optic cable, motorways, the share of the State's educational services and even railways to Sligo and Westport, which were sub-standard.
It is exactly these problems with the infrastructure that the Government has targeted and much has been done - for example, the deployment of fibreoptic cables, to attract new opportunities in the high-technology, call-centre and pharmaceutical industries.
What the Government will be selling to the regional assembly in Ballaghaderreen tomorrow is the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006. In terms of plans, it is about as ambitious as you can get. The total investment for the region is more than £13 billion, and the entire plan is to be delivered inside seven years.
The plan is based on massive investment in infrastructure, designed to capitalise on a perception that the region, despite its drawbacks, can provide a better quality of life than the congested east coast. But turning around a century-and-a-half of population decline in seven years is a tall order.
