Vol. 556 No. 1
43 Ms Harkin asked the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the progress which has been made on the issues raised by the Western Development Commission in the State of the West report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19375/02]
The State of the West report, published by the Western Development Commission in July 2001, highlighted that poor infrastructure is the main barrier to development in the western region, with significant deficits in transport, power and telecommunications infrastructure being identified.
Nevertheless, there have been significant achievements already in these areas. For example, spending on national roads in the WDC region nearly doubled in the period 1998 to 2001 as compared to the period 1994 to 1997, from €190 million to €366 million. The allocations on non-national roads also showed a significant increase for the same periods, from €215 million to €382 million. The total investment in rail infrastructure in the region during the past four years has been over €50 million. There has also been major investment in telecommunications –€18 million in the past four years.
The CLÁR programme, which I initiated in the then Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, focuses on the major issues which are impacting on rural development as well as on the re-prioritisation of spending under the national development plan. A special dedicated fund of €25.4 million is being made available for the period 2002-2003 and to date some €20.3 million has been approved for measures under the programme.
The issues raised in the report were brought to the attention of relevant Ministers and I arranged for the Western Development Commission to meet the Taoiseach last January in relation to their concerns.
Progress continues to be made under the national development plan on the improvement of infrastructure countrywide and not just in the west.
As a person who has committed a lifetime to development in the west, I fully realise the need for further investment. I also realise that no matter how many infrastructural deficits and inadequacies are addressed, there will be many more waiting for attention. This will be all the more challenging in the current world economic climate.
The Minister is right when he says there will be more waiting for attention because while he outlined what has happened, the Fitzpatrick report published recently shows clearly that spending in the BMW region is only 75% of what it should be compared to the rate in the south and east region, which is 145% of the projected spend. That clearly shows that the BMW region is once again falling behind. How can the Minister say, therefore, that the Government is responding to the major infrastructure deficit highlighted in the State of the West report when it is obvious that the gap continues to widen, even up to the present day? Furthermore, only one quarter of all the projects in the infrastructure section of the NDP have started in the BMW region.
The Minister also mentioned the CLÁR programme, which has a dedicated fund of €25 million. The Minister and I know that that is a minor rural development programme, effective in what it sets out to do but as a—
Ceist le do thoil.
—response to the major deficits outlined in the State of the West report, it is totally inadequate.
What is the Deputy's question?
How can the Minister suggest that we are catching up in the BMW region when only 75% of the spend on infrastructure has taken place there compared to 145% in the south and east region? What is the Minister's response to that? Furthermore, how can he state that CLÁR is an adequate response to the major infrastructure deficits highlighted in the State of the West report?
The facts speak for themselves. The expenditure on roads in the BMW region – to which the Deputy is referring when quoting statistics – has doubled. That is a fact. Something that is very much in our favour in the west is that the cost of building a mile of road up to an adequate standard is much cheaper than in the southern and eastern regions. For example, to build a mile of the Knock bypass is much cheaper than building a mile of the M50. One of the advantages, therefore, that we have in the BMW region is that we will be able to do much more in the future for less euro per mile. I recognise, as a Minister from the west and as someone who is involved in the development of industry there, the serious problem with infrastructure. The Government's recognition of this problem informed the Taoiseach's decision to set up a dedicated ministry of rural development. As the Deputy is aware, that Department has only existed for the past four months and therefore its full impact is not felt.
The Deputy mentioned the CLÁR programme. It always seems that people on both the east coast and the west coast want big infrastructure for the big people. That is why we end up spending so much time picking up the pieces in the RAPID areas in the inner city or the CLÁR areas in the countryside. As an ex-industrialist and somebody who is involved in development work and as a rural dweller, I am very conscious of the daily lives of the little people. To dismiss CLÁR, which is setting about making sure that every house in rural Ireland has proper piped water and a proper road going to the door, that the small places do not have to wait for all the big centres in the west to get their broadband infrastructure, that the two or three person industry has three-phase electricity, is to miss what the people of rural Ireland want.
I am not dismissing the importance or CLÁR or the minor rural development programme.
The Deputy has done so from the very beginning.
When the Minister was appointed to his present position he said he knew what the people of the west wanted and to set up a commission – the Western Development Commission – which could spend less than €1 million per county per annum would only add to the number of agencies in the west and would not make any significant difference. How can he stand here today and tell us that a CLÁR programme that has €10 million per annum to spend over 16 counties and 998 DEDs is the start of the big fight back and can make any significant difference to the issues raised in the Western Development Commission report?
If the Deputy wants to ask a question about the Western Development Commission she should put it down, but as she knows, I have already instigated a major review of its rural functional area and functions. It is about time we stopped adding agency to agency. I measure the effect of CLÁR very simply – it is a leverage mechanism. The €12 million spent this year has been worth at least €50 million in investment in those areas because it levers out other money, for example to the group water schemes, in about a 6:1 ratio for every euro we put in, and in some cases 10:1. It is amazing that all of those outside but near the CLÁR area are writing to indicate that they want to get into it. I have parliamentary questions to that effect today. If it is such a failure I am amazed that their next-door neighbours are so anxious to be included in the CLÁR programme.
