Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 20 Mar 2001

Vol. 532 No. 4

Written Answers. - National Development Plan.

Willie Penrose

Question:

273 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Finance the allocation made to the BMW region to permit major infrastructural investment and development in this region; the regional plan that is in place to ensure expenditure under the National Development Plan 2000-2006, is allocated to each of the counties in this defined region; if priorities for counties like Westmeath and Longford have been identified for investment; if so, the heads under which such investment will be targeted; if any such grants across these areas have already been allocated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7585/01]

Minister for Finance (Mr. McCreevy):

The economic and social infrastructure operational programme of the NDP provides for more than 26 billion euro, current prices, of investment over the period 2000-06 in national roads, public transport, housing, environmental services and health. The indicative allocations for the southern and eastern region and the BMW region are more than 19 billion euro and 7 billion euro respectively, as the following table indicates:

Priority	Total	BMW	S&E
National Roads	6,748.45	2,479.36	4,269.09
Public Transport	3,051.30	476.93	2,574.37
Environmental Infrastructure	3,852.69	1,065.32	2,787.37
Sustainable Energy	222.52	78.01	144.51
Housing	9,107.98	1,985.15	7,122.83
Health Facilities	3,035.56	915.38	2,120.18
Total	26,018.50	7,000.15	19,018.35

At regional level, the key investment programmes are the regional operational programmes. The southern and eastern regional operational programme provides for investment of some 5.4 billion euro while the BMW regional operational programmes provides for investment of more than 4 billion euro. These allocations are split between four subprogrammes as follows:

Subprogrammes	S&E Region (euro million)	BMW Region (euro million)
Local Infrastructure	3,045	2,524
Local Enterprise	626	552
Agriculture and Rural Development	543	640
Social Inclusion and Childcare	1,165	378
Total	5,379	4,094

The NDP does not provide for county specific allocations at OP, subprogramme or measure levels. Questions on expenditure by county on particular NDP measures should be addressed to the Minister with primary responsibility in the area in question.