Vol. 476 No. 7
83 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Minister for Finance if there are elements of positive discrimination exercised by his Department towards particular areas in view of the fact that areas of rural Ireland contribute substantially to our current Objective One status; the form that any such positive discrimination takes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8032/97]
Ireland as a whole qualified for objective One status under the current round of funding on the basis that our GDP per capita was less than 75 per cent of the Community average. My Department in preparing the National Development Plan, which formed the basis for our negotiation with the European Commission of the Community Support Framework 1994-9 and its constituent operational programmes, did seek regional and other inputs into the process. Submissions from the sub-regional review commitees and sectoral interests which would have reflected the views of the regions and the views, among others, of rural Ireland were considered in developing the National Development Plan. While it must be acknowledged that the operational programmes are national sectoral programmes and primary responsibility for their implementation rests with a number of my Cabinet colleagues, some of the programmes such as, for example, agriculture, rural development and forestry and local urban and rural development have a specific rural focus.
In order to ensure that the programmes will continue to have regard to the development needs of the regions my Department commissioned on behalf of the regional authorities a mid-term evaluation of the regional impact of the Community Support Framework 1994-9. This regional evaluation will form an integral part of the mid-term review decision making process of the CSF which is currently ongoing.
