The new report from the Western Development Commission (WDC) showing that regional disparities are continuing to grow between the west and the more developed eastern and southern regions is bad news for the Government.
When the National Development Plan was unveiled in November 1999 the Government stressed that one of its fundamental aims was to redress regional imbalances.
The Taoiseach said then he wanted to make it clear that the plan was for the "whole country" - north, south, east and west. "We are determined to end the regional imbalances that have disfigured modern Ireland," Mr Ahern said.
To back this up, the per capita allocation to the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region - the area categorised as Objective 1 for European funding - was higher than the national average.
Of the total £40.6 billion spending in the NDP, the allocation to the BMW region was £13.8 billion, meaning its per capita allocation was 23 per cent higher than the national average.
But today's report, The State of the West: Recent Trends and Future Prospects, makes it clear that the NDP is not having the desired effect, and it is not primarily a question of money. It is more a question of approach and of getting promises delivered and ensuring key infrastructure is put in place sooner rather than later.
Recommendations in the report place great emphasis on "focusing the minds" of key decision-makers on western issues. The WDC speaks of a need to "decentralise the mindset of government departments" increasingly consumed by the problems of overgrowth in the east.
One of the most important issues highlighted in the report is the adverse impact of the deregulation of the power and telecommunications markets on the western region. Privatised companies, concerned primarily with profit, will not roll out infrastructure to less-populated regions, unless the Government takes measures to ensure they do.
The chief executive of the Western Development Commission, Mr Liam Scollan, said this adverse impact at regional level was "underestimated" in the NDP. In the case of telecommunications, it was recognised that State intervention was needed but the incentives offered were not sufficient to prevent companies like Eircom and Esat Telecom from pulling out from certain projects over the past year.
While the debate can sometimes be theoretical, the lack of adequate infrastructure has very real consequences on the ground. At a recent IBEC seminar in the north-west, a manager of a Letterkenny-based subsidiary of a US company, which relies on a high-speed phone connection for its work, said they had to send their staff home because the line had been damaged by a digger at Longford. It was not repaired for several hours. He explained how his bosses in the US found this difficult to understand.
The WDC, which covers the seven western counties from Donegal to Clare, warns that unless immediate action is taken "a technical and communications gap will develop that will be impossible to bridge".
It recommends that two high-level working groups, comprising senior officials from relevant departments, be set up to deal with roads and power/telecommunications. These should complete their work by next February with costed development schedules. These groups of dedicated officials would then have what the WDC calls "ownership" of the task and have a timescale to deliver.
It is an approach already taken by the Government. When the NDP was published a Cabinet subcommittee on infrastructure was formed to ensure implementation of key projects. This subcommittee has a secretariat similar to the working groups suggested by the WDC, and its focus is on projects such as Luas and major road improvements, mainly in the Dublin area.
This emphasis on implementation and delivery is what is lacking when it comes to improving the west's infrastructure.
The fact that these "working groups" are needed is itself a reflection of the lack of strong regional structures in the State. The regional structures we have were designed primarily to ensure we could maximise our EU funding allocations under regionalisation. But no real power was devolved to the regions. The approach recommended by the WDC could be described as the "second best option".
In response to today's report the Government is likely to say it is too soon to say that the NDP is not having the desired effect. However, Mr Scollan states clearly that the plan is not delivering.
"We have seen very little signals that key government departments, either individually or in a collective way, are focusing on the issues we are addressing here. For something to happen next year, the groundwork would need to be happening now, and we see very little evidence of that," he said.
The WDC is seeking a strategic approach and wants decisions on infrastructure investment to be based on development needs. It argues that measures are now being taken only in a "patchwork" way.
There is no doubt that there will be very strong support for this report in the west. These issues are raised constantly by IBEC and chambers of commerce with whom the WDC has liaised closely.
This debate has been going on for decades and there is a strong feeling that central government cannot continue to long-finger these issues. The NDP espoused principles advocated by the Western Development Commission but it is clear something more is needed if they are to become reality on the ground.
Concrete measures are recommended in the report but strong political will be needed to drive them. The WDC is a State agency, set up to advise the Government on these issues and it was put on a statutory basis in 1999. The question now is will the Government listen to its advice.