A chara, - Arising from coverage of the Tanaiste's announcement of objectives for greater balance in regional development in respect of Enterprise Ireland's three-year targets (February 6th), a number of points appear to require clarification, particularly from a Northwest region perspective.
Firstly, the Tanaiste is to be sincerely congratulated on her efforts to firmly establish targets for development agencies to deliver additional achievements in the BMW region where there is unanimity that development has lagged behind.
Secondly, setting an Enterprise Ireland target of 30 per cent of financial support to projects in the BMW region is likewise to be welcomed. While funding and job creation are not absolutely and directly comparable, however, this target is clearly out of line with the more stringent objective of creating 50 per cent of all new jobs in this region as is required of the IDA.
Thirdly, the Tanaiste "rejected claims that the Northwest had not received its fair share of job creation . . ." This statement unfortunately is grossly inaccurate, if not completely untrue. Figures provided in the IDA end of year statement for the years 1999 and 2000 show that during the period 1995 to 2000, at the height of the Celtic Tiger era, the Northwest region lost 1,521 jobs (-22 per cent), while the Northeast region gained 437 (+9 per cent) jobs, the Midlands region gained 181 (+3 per cent) jobs, the West region gained 4,280 (+51%) jobs, the Midwest region gained 3,334 (+31%) jobs, the Southwest region gained 7,292 (+59 per cent) jobs, the Southeast region gained 1,463 (+17 per cent) jobs, and lastly the Eastern region gained 34,140 (+105 per cent) jobs.
The Tanaiste linked lack of employment creation with the poorer infrastructure of the BMW region and noted that the National Development Plan would redress this imbalance. On this point, it is significant to note that the infrastructural budget for the BMW region is less than the same budget for the southern and eastern regions.
Finally, in this light, Mr Dan Flinter of Enterprise Ireland's comment that "an expansion of Dublin-based companies" was one of the key objectives of his organisation during the next three years would appear to considerably undermine some of the credibility of central development agencies' true commitment to balancing regional growth. - Is mise,
Caoimhin Mac Aoidh, Beal Atha Seannaigh, Co Thir Chonaill.