Vol. 488 No. 5
75 Mr. G. Reynolds asked the Minister for Finance if the current negotiations with the EU in relation to Objective 1 status, post 1999, fails to secure continued Objective 1 status for the Country; and the plans, if any, he has to deal with the region of Connacht and Ulster, which is eligible for Objective 1 status post 1999. [6798/98]
The issue of Ireland's continued Objective 1 status has been addressed in Agenda 2000, the European Commission's proposals for EU policies in the period 2000-2006. In this document, the Commission has proposed transitional arrangements for regions like Ireland which are currently eligible for Objective 1 status but which will have passed the eligibility threshold of 75 per cent of EU average per capita income levels. Formal proposals on detailed new Regulations governing the nature of the transition are expected shortly from the Commission. Negotiations on the substance of these are likely to begin this year and may continue into next year.
The negotiations in question will involve agreement with the European Commission and the Council of a satisfactory transitional regime to cover the situation in which Ireland as a whole can no longer expect to qualify as an Objective 1 region on the basis of having a per capital GDP below 75 per cent of the Community average. Notwithstanding this, it is the Government's position that transition arrangements must ensure continued and generous access to the Objective 1 funding envelope during the next programming period, so as to meet the substantial backlogs in infrastructural and social development which continue to persist in Ireland and which are even, to a degree, accentuated by our recent economic success.
In this context, the Government is especially conscious of the needs of the less-developed parts of the country and those suffering from population decline and will do all in their power to ensure that the needs of these areas are properly addressed, as promised in the Government's Programme, "An Action Plan for the Millennium".
