The next National Development Plan 2007-2013 will contain 7 year indicative financial allocations. These indicative allocations will be at national level rather than two Region level as is the case in the current Plan. The two Region basis derived from the Structural Funds regionalisation strategy under the current round which yielded an additional €600 million in Structural Funds. This issue does not arise on this occasion and the Regional Development strategy in the NDP will be built around the National Spatial Strategy template rather than the two Region approach.
More generally, the level of substantive funding under the next NDP will be a matter for decision by Government and will be revealed when the Plan is published in November next.
Data for first six months of 2006 will be available at the Autumn 2006 meetings of the Operational Programme Monitoring Committees. The most recent expenditure data on the National Development Plan 2000-2006 relates to the period to the end of December 2005. The data are set out in Tables 1 and 2 as follows.
Table 1 sets out the indicative total expenditure forecasts and the estimated total expenditure incurred under each Operational Programme in the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) Region for the period January 2000 to December 2005.
Table 1 — Total Profiled and Estimated Expenditure in BMW Region, January 2000 to end December 2005
|
Operational Programme
|
Original Profile
|
Estimated Expenditure
|
Expenditure versus Profile
|
|
€m
|
€m
|
%
|
|
Economic and Social Infrastructure
|
5,863
|
5,435
|
92
|
|
Employment & Human Resources Development
|
3,653
|
3,449
|
94
|
|
Productive Sector
|
2,663
|
786
|
29
|
|
Border, Midlands & Western Regional
|
3,519
|
2,273
|
64
|
|
PEACE II & Technical Assistance
|
146
|
109
|
74
|
|
Total Expenditure
|
15,844
|
12,052
|
76
|
Profiles and Expenditure data includes all NDP sources of funding; Exchequer, EU and Private.
The Exchequer forecast and estimated Exchequer expenditure incurred under each operational programme in the BMW Region for the period January 2000 to December 2005 is set out in Table 2.
Table 2 — Profiled and Estimated Exchequer Expenditure in BMW Region, January 2000 to end December 2005
|
Operational Programme
|
Original Profile
|
Estimated Expenditure
|
Expenditure versus Profile
|
|
€m
|
€m
|
%
|
|
Economic and Social Infrastructure
|
4,054
|
4,570
|
113
|
|
Employment and Human Resources Development
|
3,654
|
3,495
|
96
|
|
Productive Sector
|
1,741
|
600
|
34
|
|
Border, Midlands & Western Regional
|
2,566
|
1,920
|
75
|
|
PEACE II & Technical Assistance
|
146
|
109
|
74
|
|
Total Exchequer Expenditure
|
12,161
|
10,694
|
88
|
It can be seen by the data presented in Table 2 that the Exchequer contribution to the BMW Region under the Economic and Social Infrastructure Operational Programme (ESIOP) has exceeded its original target by €516 million to the end of 2005.
However, a complete picture of extra expenditure in the region, over that committed in the lifetime of the NDP, will not be available until the full year expenditure data for 2006 are analysed and reported at the Spring 2007 meetings of the Operational Programme Monitoring Committees.
Investment under the NDP 2000-2006 in the BMW region has included over €1.5 billion spent in the National Roads Programme, with expenditure of €870m in the last two years 2004-05. The National Roads Authority has spent over €416m alone in 2005 on the BMW region with a similar amount forecast for 2006. A large number of major projects have recently been completed, the M1 Dundalk Western By-pass, the N4 Kinnegad by-pass, the N2 Carrickmacross by-pass, the N26 Ballina/Bohola, the N4 Sligo Inner Relief road, the N5 Strokestown/Longford, the N4 Boyle/Carrick-on-Shannon, and the N15 Ballyshannon/Bundoran. The Edgeworthstown by-pass opened on Monday 19 June, 2006. Major road projects under construction or due to begin construction in the Region in 2006 include N6 Kinnegad/Athlone, N2 Monaghan By-Pass, N2 Castleblayney By-Pass, N4 Dromod/Roosky, and the N5 Charlestown By-Pass.
In the Public Transport area €283 million has been directly invested in projects in the BMW region including work on the Rail Network re-signalling project in the BMW in relation to the Dublin-Galway railway line and the Dublin-Sligo railway line, with consequent reductions in journey times. Furthermore, Iarnród Éireann took delivery of 36 new modern diesel railcars and most have been allocated to the Sligo route. An order of 150 new high specification Inter-city railcars has been placed by Iarnród Éireann at a cost of €324.3 million. These railcars are expected to enter service from 2007 onwards and will operate on the Dublin-Galway, Dublin-Westport and Dublin-Ballina railway lines.
Nearly €2bn in public funds has been spent in the BMW region since 2000 on housing projects, which is 121% of the forecasted amount for the period.
Since the Plan commenced 10,400 additional child care places and nearly 700 child care facilities have been established or upgraded in the BMW region.
There have been some difficulties in expenditure under the Productive Sector Operational Programme. This Operational Programme has achieved 29% or €786 million of forecast in the BMW region (52% in the S&E region). There are a number of reasons for this, including the following. The slowdown in economic activity in the early years of the Programme meant that businesses were not in a position to put forward investment plans to avail of funding. Industry in the BMW region had limited ability to absorb funding for Research and Development projects. Also, Research and Development projects usually have a long lead in time between inception and funding requests. The nature and extent of Third Level infrastructure in place in the BMW region — while there is one University and a number of Institutes of Technology — means that the ability of the region to carry out Research and Development projects is constrained. There were delays in getting State Aid clearance resulting in the late start to funding some schemes.
