Sir, - Scarcely a village, town, city, or inhabited offshore island is not aware of - and indeed, if fortunate, a recipient of - the EU structural funds bonanza.
The Irish landscape is dotted with signs of affluence and prosperity which testify to exciting infrastructural benefits at various stages of planning, development, or completion.
Essentially, the EU structural funds are designed to promote convergence in living standards among the EU countries by helping to finance more growth in the less developed regions of the EU.
On a more sombre note, however, Ireland's phenomenal economic success may lead to a diminution of our entitlements to grant aid on the scale of Objective 1 status. As of now and up to 1999, the eligibility criteria for this classification requires that our GDP should be less than 75 per cent of the EU average.
Island Trust has a major problem with the Celtic Tiger concept. It would simply pose the question as to what difference this much lauded prosperity boom has made to our inhabited offshore islands. Island Trust would also submit that such affluence has scarcely touched the lives of some communities in these isolated marginal and often forgotten areas.
Of particular concern to Island Trust is the fact that when Objective 1 status for Structural Funds ends after 1999, the offshore inhabited islands will then be deemed to have reached the same degree of affluence and prosperity as the remainder of the country. To achieve this classification would require a massive investment in the infrastructure of these islands in employment, transport, harbour development, education, communications, social and cultural activities and particularly access.
When infrastructural developments are being considered, the spotlight must of necessity focus on Inishbiggle, off Co. Mayo. Access to this island is by a currach ferry over the 800-metre tidal crossing in the teeth of the most dangerous and fastest recorded tidal currents on the west coast. The absence of a safe and permanent link to the mainland has condemned the inhabitants of Inishbiggle to the brink of enforced evacuation. This is just one case which immediately comes to mind and which raises the question of whether Objective 1 status should not apply to peripheral regions until their needs have been met? - Yours, etc.,
Diarmuid O Peicin C.I.,
Island Trust, Milltown Park, Dublin 6.