Capital Expenditure.

Wednesday, 30 November 2005

Questions (247)

Billy Timmins

Question:

279 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the amount of funding allocated to the mid-east and other regions for the years 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004 from his Department; the payment this represented per head of population; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37003/05]

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Written answers

Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. Roche)

The mid-east region comprises counties Kildare, Meath and Wicklow. The funding for capital purposes allocated by my Department to the mid-east region, together with allocations to the remainder of the southern and eastern region and the Border, midlands and western, BMW, region for the years 2000 to 2004 is set out in the following table:

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
	(€million)	(€million)	(€million)	(€million)	(€million)
Mid-East	114.613	152.285	170.689	165.286	173.094
Remainder of S&E	782.050	1,121.114	1,228.999	1,123.417	1,118.604
BMW	407.981	522.268	609.887	601.388	590.046

These allocations are for the provision of the following services: housing, water and waste-water services, waste management, non-national roads, urban and village renewal and habitats and heritage conservation.

Based on population information supplied by the Central Statistics Office, these allocations can be represented on a per capita basis as follows:

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
	€	€	€	€	€
Mid-East	295	381	414	389	396
Remainder of S&E	326	462	498	450	443
BMW	408	516	587	569	547

It should be noted that the remainder of the southern and eastern region includes all but one of the country's major cities and that major expenditure on housing and urban regeneration has been concentrated in Dublin and Cork. In addition, it should be noted that in the early years of the national development plan priority was given to investment in major water services projects in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.

However, with the completion of major projects in the major urban areas, per capita expenditure on water services has increased in the mid-east region in recent years compared to the rest of the southern and eastern region. Investment by my Department on non-national roads throughout the years in question, expressed in per capita terms, indicates the mid-east region is ahead of the rest of the southern and eastern region. Per capita benefit is higher in the BMW region but it should be borne in mind that the BMW region, which consists of 47% of the land area, accounts for just 27% of the national population.