Two senior Ministers - Mary O'Rourke at Public Enterprise and Noel Dempsey at Environment - must be viewing Friday next with some apprehension. EU Regional Commissioner Monika Wulf-Mathies arrives here then, and she is the one who doles out the money. Both Ministers have big projects in hand that depend on EU funding, and her department is no longer the walkover it was when Britain's Bruce Millan was in charge and Ireland got practically everything it wanted with no questions asked.
Ms Wulf-Mathies comes with guns blazing. She had a run-in with former Environment Minister Brendan Howlin when she refused him the 85 per cent grant for the Mutton Island sewage treatment plant in Galway Bay on environmental grounds. It's still in abeyance and it may arise as Mr Dempsey seeks to establish good relations with the powerful German. Mrs O'Rourke will be keen to find out if the 50 per cent funding for LUAS is still secure. It was allocated for an above-ground system but we are now examining the underground option. Also the money is supposed to be spent by the end of 1999, with some overspill allowed, but since LUAS hasn't even started yet there is concern that we may lose it all.
The Commissioner will also meet Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy but that's about future structural funding, Agenda 2000. Generally she wants to know if we have spent the funds on what they are supposed to be spent on within the time-frame allowed and, if not, why not. We should have the answers ready or we could be cut off with little or nothing.