You can be sure a general election is on the way when the Government unveils a development plan for the Border Midlands and Western (BMW) region.
Promises of investment in the most deprived parts of the State have become the modern political equivalent of draining the Shannon. So, having failed to deliver on investment pledges given by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and then finance minister, Charlie McCreevy, under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, the Government is now in the process of reviewing fresh proposals.
Minister for Environment, Heritage and Local Government Dick Roche presided over the launch of the document yesterday but, to his credit, he declined to make grandiose investment promises. Instead, he noted the plan devised for the BMW regional assembly would feed into arrangements for regional planning guidelines and county development plans. The caution of the Minister was understandable, given the record of the Government. In 2001, following four years of research, the Western Development Commission produced a careful analysis of what was required in terms of transport, electricity and communication investment if the region was to grow and develop in the short term. That document was ignored. Instead, a report covering the larger BMW region and based on the National Spatial Strategy, until 2025, was commissioned. It has now been published.
Much of the ground that was covered in the original report is repeated here. The slow pace of development under the National Development Plan and the failure of the Government to meet investment targets is recognised. The need for better roads and transport links, for broadband, high-voltage electricity and third-level educational services is emphasised.
The report, quite properly, favours the implementation of a national spatial strategy and the development of a small number of designated growth centres as quality business locations. In light of the Government's decision to ignore its own spatial strategy in choosing locations for the decentralisation of civil and public servants, however, the validity of the exercise must be in doubt. What is unquestionable, however, is the need to reverse the investment shortfall over a range of projects that occurred during the course of the current National Development Plan. Finance Minister Brian Cowen, whose constituency is in the BMW region, may address that issue in the forthcoming spending estimates. For, in spite of political posturing, this Government has failed to address the growing economic imbalance between the developed East and the increasingly impoverished BMW region.