I move:
That Dáil Éireann calls on the Government to recognise the need for the development of the Border region and requests that available EEC funds be used more extensively for this purpose.
I note that the Government have put down an amendment to this motion which states:
To delete all words after "Dáil Eireann" and substitute:—
recognises the need for the development of the Border region and urges the local authorities and other agencies concerned to ensure that full use is made of the opportunities offered by the Special Border Areas Programme for the improvement of the economic and social situation of those areas.
This is a simplistic approach. The Government say they will urge the local authorities and other agencies to be more alert, but it is the Government who have the finger on the purse strings.
This debate will enable us to seek clarification of a number of points concerning the system of allocation of the fund. There is an EEC publication relating to Regulation No. 2165 of 1980 and No. 724 of 1975 which states that the Border areas of Northern Ireland and Ireland are among the most disadvantaged areas of the EEC being characterised by low population density, a labour force highly dependent on agriculture, high unemployment, emigration and low incomes.
We do not seem to be operating the Border Counties Fund satisfactorily. The fund was for £20.5 million and was allocated in 1980. It is time to have a clear look at it. We must set up an operating structure which would ensure that schemes are co-ordinated. When Ireland decided by a massive vote to enter the EEC we all looked forward to the benefits which would accrue from our membership. We thought funds would be made available for the less developed areas. Many people have questioned whether the benefits have been as great as we hoped. I am satisfied that overall our entry has been beneficial. However, we have not made proper use of the funds that are available.
People living in the Border areas looked forward to EEC entry, first of all because it brought both sovereign Governments into the same trading group. In addition it was known that Border areas are of their nature deprived areas. The fact that our Border areas are deprived is an indictment of every Government for the last 50 years. The Border areas have been neglected. There are politicians here who trot out their concern for the region now and again and then conveniently forget all about it.
In the past I made loud protests about EEC funding because it was either insufficient or was not forthcoming. There are funds available now which are not being used and it is only right that I should protest equally loudly. I mentioned the special programme fund for Border areas. It was a fund of £20.5 million which was made available for 1980-85. At the end of the first two years we had only expended £3.4 million. A sum of £2.1 million was not taken up. Those are figures I got in reply to parliamentary questions. In reply to a parliamentary question the Minister for Finance said that as far as the unexpended balance from the EEC special Border area programme fund could be identified on a county by county basis, Donegal received £1.8 million and £1.1 million was unexpended; Cavan spent £500,000 and £606,000 was unexpended; Monaghan spent £398,000 and £191,000 was unexpended; Leitrim spent £391,000 and £34,000 was unexpended; Louth spent £299,000 and £159,000 was not taken up. On glancing at that one could say local authorities had a lot to answer for.
When this fund became available Monaghan County Council drew up a comprehensive list of projects the cost of which were scrutinised by technical and other staff. We came up with the figure in excess of £2 million. On 6 January 1981 I asked the Minister for Finance for a breakdown of the funding which would be available. In a letter the Minister stated that a Council regulation was approved which enabled the non-quota section of the European Regional Development Fund to participate in a special five year programme of measures aimed at the improvement of the economic and social situation of the Border areas of Ireland and Northern Ireland. A tentative allocation of surveys from the special fund has been made as follows: £3.6 million in grants for the development of tourist accommodation; £1 million for the promotion of tourism in the Border counties; £5.3 million for the development of tourist-related amenities; £5.1 million for the improvement of telecommunication services and access to tourist areas, such as improvement of minor roads; £2.2 million for the development of transport activities aimed at providing easier access for tourists to the Border areas; and £3.3 million for grants and marketing aids for craft industries.
Regarding the £191,000 unexpended in Monaghan, I should like the Minister to explain why, we having submitted our annual list of projects in 1982 in respect of which we sought grant aid, we received from the Department of Finance in January 1983 a notification that £40,000 worth of those projects did not qualify on the criteria laid down. There have been projects to the extent of £2 million in value submitted but yet this £191,000 is unexpended. I find it hard to accept that. Last year our allocation in respect of tourist improvements was £105,000 and in respect of minor road improvements it was £95,000. The road improvement allocation was expended. Much more could have been spent under that heading but in 1983 under that same fund from which we expected to get nearly £1 million per year for a five-year period, we received only £80,000.
In respect of tourist-related projects our allocation is £40,000 and for purposes of road widening and the provision of parking areas along scenic routes, the allocation is £40,000 also. Why were the criteria not laid down before the £2 million worth of projects was submitted? We are talking about a Government Department, not about some local club. There is inefficiency in a Department, whether it be the Department of Finance or of the Environment, that hold a project for so long and then throw it out on the basis that it did not meet the criteria laid down.
The last item referred to in the letter we received from the Department relates to an allocation of £3.3 million for grants and marketing aids in respect of craft industries. Having visited the national display at the RDS for a number of years and having seen the displays on the part of the craft industries, both North and South, I concluded that we were weak in this regard in the Border regions. I asked at county council level that the VEC would become involved. I even went so far as to get an application form for one of the Kilworth craft centre courses thinking that in those early years we would involve our youth and that on the expiration of the five-year period we would be in a position to avail of this funding. In February this year Deputy Blaney and I asked by way of parliamentary question what was the position about funding for the craft industries. The Minister replied that a total of £149,934 by way of grants was provided for craft industries in Counties Donegal and Louth, 50 per cent of this being provided by the non-quota section of the Regional Development Fund, that £500,000 had been allocated to Córas Tráchtála, who provided marketing aids for small- and medium-sized industries, including craft industries in all the Border counties. More than three times the £149,000 — £500,000 — was given to Córas Tráchtála. Those of us who are involved in cross-Border development and who are concerned as to the expending of that money are anxious to find out why that amount was allocated to CCT. Is this money being siphoned off in respect of marketing of other industrial development? It is important that money allocated to industries in the Border area be used for that purpose. I should like to know what the attitude in Brussels would be in that regard.
Because the Border area so warranted, we secured from the EEC more than £20 million; but it is a matter of great disappointment to me that all our State agencies—the IDA, county development teams and so on—were not brought together in an effort to produce a programme by which we could avail of the £3.3 million. This is an example of where we fall down in terms of the usage of such funds. It is why I am asking that there be a direct allocation and that we set up a structure in the Border area, be it a board or whatever, with an executive officer to deal with such matters. It is possible that money would be provided by the EEC for such a structure. Perhaps we could have something on the lines of SFADCo. Two-and-a-half years later we are not in a position in the Border area to avail of our allocation. I should like the Minister to explain how the £500,000 was used to market projects to the extent of £149,000 in two of the five counties. It does not make sense to me.
I am satisfied that there is a structural weakness in the operation of this and other funds, control of which rests with Brussels, Dublin, London and Belfast and with a series of committees and of officials and public representatives. The control is so dispersed and bad that one can only be surprised that anything has been done. In order to have the development scheme operate properly an overall controlling presence on the ground in the Border area is required. An experienced organiser with a small back-up staff would be able to turn this scheme into a worthwhile endeavour. This would encourage the provision of other funds, whereas failure to utilise the present position can only inhibit us in terms of other funding.
The sum of £1.1 million has not been taken up, despite the fact that there are about 1.800 unemployed people in County Monaghan and 11,000 in County Donegal. If that £1.1 million were handed to some agency tomorrow and they were told to get people at work in Donegal, before the end of the week there would be 600 or 700 people in jobs which would qualify under the terms of that scheme. The unexpended balance of £191,000 in Monaghan could provide jobs for 30 or 40 men for a full year. The Government are passing the buck by stating in their amendment that they are urging the different agencies and the local authorities to be more effective in their approach.
The record of SFADCo is a prime example of what can be achieved with the right will and leadership and it is an example which could well be studied by councils in the Border region. I would ask the Minister if SFADCo or some other agency could examine the situation with a view to improving it.
Expenditure at the end of two years amounts to 38 per cent of the total available in that period. It is a national scandal that funds should remain unexpended when employment is so badly needed. The massive under-expenditure has not arisen for want of sufficient projects.
A recent occurrence shows yet again that the Government do not recognise the problems of this area. I refer to a letter from the secretary of the Minister for Health sent on his authorisation to the North Eastern Health Board a week ago which stated that the board would have to make a decision on the three hospitals in the area—two in Cavan and one in Monaghan. He wished the board to let him know what proposals they had for the disposal of these hospitals. Monaghan town has had many problems as a result of troubles in the Border region and has had more atrocities, bombings and shootings than anywhere else. Last week a young man who had been married only two months had bullets fired into his chest from a distance of two yards while standing in his bathroom. He suffered six broken ribs and a broken wrist and is now lying in Monaghan hospital. The Minister, without visiting either Cavan or Monaghan, has decided with the flick of a pen to dispose of this hospital. We cannot allow that type of attitude to continue. Such people have no appreciation of the difficulties in the region where there have been so many atrocities.
There have also been many problems in small family-type industries dealing with meat processing, pigs, ducks and broilers. The Government are taking in terms of closing down a basic component of our infrastructure, leaving people with no option but to travel 50 miles for medical attention.
The Minister for Finance also increased the price of petrol and wrecked the economy in the area for several months. It is accepted that there was a loss of 25 per cent or 30 per cent in trade during those months until the relationship between sterling and the punt altered the position, not due to assistance from the Government or any State agency.
On 11 January 1983 the Minister for Finance announced that the Commission of the European Communities had approved the commitment of £14.7 million in Regional Fund aid for Ireland, which represented a partial reimbursement of Exchequer expenditure. He went on to give a list various infrastructural projects but not one penny was to be spent in the five Border counties. The Government and various State agencies are hiding behind this type of allocation saying that there is a special Border counties fund. This is a myth as far as we are concerned and we are to get nothing of that £14.7 million.
Donegal and Leitrim are classified as severely handicapped under the disadvantaged areas scheme and qualify for cattle headage payments. Something like 24 per cent of Monaghan has now been declared severely handicapped and a slightly higher percentage of Cavan is so designated. Both these counties in their entirety should have been declared severely handicapped, but this was not the case. Another review is coming up and submissions will be made to Brussels before the end of the year and it is my hope that the imbalance will be rectified.
According to An Foras Talúntais, 77 per cent of land in Cavan and 44 per cent of the land in Monaghan is marginal, that is, land which is difficult to drain and expensive to maintain. Many schemes, including the western drainage package, have been suspended because finance is not available. We must rectify at the first opportunity the problem whereby a county where 77 per cent of the land is marginal has been declared severely handicapped only to the extent of 30 per cent. The figures giving a comparison of farmers in various regions prove that Counties Monaghan and Cavan should in their entirety be declared severely handicapped.
There seems to be little appreciation by politicians and people in the remainder of the country of the problems of the Border area. The Border area we are talking about constitutes 20 per cent of the total land area of the island and the population there amounts to 15 per cent of the island's total. We are talking about a substantial area and a large population which surveys have shown clearly are at standards below those of the rest of the island. I would like the Minister to take that into consideration. A feature of the entire Border area is the dependency rate, that is the ratio of persons under 15 and over 64 years of age to those in the active age group, which is 75 per cent as against the national average of 70 per cent. Unemployment is above the national average at 20 per cent in every area, and in some parts of the region 50 per cent of the work force are unemployed.
The EEC assessment to which I have referred sets out how underprivileged and neglected the Border region is. A more lengthy and detailed analysis of this position is set out in this report on the Erne catchment which was prepared by a team of consultants, Brady, Shipman & Martin and P. A. Management Consultants Limited. It is in that context of urgent need that we protest about the failure to use these available funds. The Erne catchment study was launched in 1979. The report was presented in 1980 and it was accepted by the sovereign Governments and by the local authorites. Prior to the issue of this report a number of local authorities commissioned management consultants Stokes Kennedy and Crowley to examine the situation in that area, at fairly high cost. The catchment study was carried out by P. A. Management Consultants Limited and Brady Shipman & Martin and presented. Three years afterwards nothing has happened. In 1978 I was in contact with Mr. Giolitti, a Commissioner of the EEC, and I issued an invitation to him to visit the region. The North Eastern Regional Development Organisation visited Brussels in 1980 and they renewed the request. He has not visited the region, and that is a great pity. I wrote to him a few months ago and in March I received a reply. I had pointed out to him our disappointment at the fact that nothing has been carried out regarding the consultants' report.
In the course of his letter he admitted that he was a little perturbed at the implications of the Erne catchment study which was jointly commissioned and financed by the Irish and British Governments and the Commission and that the high hopes raised had not given rise to concrete action. He went on to say that he had received the first progress reports on the Border areas programme covering the period June 1981 to December 1981 and, while it was a relatively short period in which to judge the development of the Community measure, he had noted that certain of the recommendations in respect of tourist accommodation had already been undertaken. The ones undertaken were those I have outlined where we failed to take up the money.
That Erne study should have had terrific benefits for the complete region. It would have been very positive in regard to cross-Border development because it involved all of county Fermanagh, a portion of Tyrone, half of County Monaghan, all of Cavan and portion of Leitrim. It covered a very wide area. Included were the Woodford River, and the Ballymore-Ballyconnell Canal, the complete Erne catchment for drainage, and a spread of tourist facilities and amenities for the development of the area. I made inquiries in Brussels during the early part of this year and it seems that nothing on the ground is being done in this respect.
At the end of last year I was in contact with Mr. Prior, Secretary for State for Northern Ireland. Last September he made a speech in which, according to the press, he cast the blame on the people in the South for the insufficient headway made in cross-Border developments. I wrote to him and received a reply from the British Embassy which stated:
In your letter you mentioned the drainage of the Erne catchment area. The Secretary of State shares your view of the importance of this project and work is now underway: The Department of Agriculture in Northern Ireland in conjunction with the Office of Public Works in the Republic is presently involved in the design of a draft scheme for the Finn-Lackey rivers. Design work on the River Blackwater cross-Border drainage scheme is well advanced and details are expected to be published soon.
You also referred to the Monitoring Group which played an important role on behalf of the Councils on both sides of the border during the Consultants' study of the Erne Catchment Area. As you rightly say the group fell into abeyance after the report of the study was published. But the Northern Ireland Office believe that some members of the Councils involved are now anxious to reactivate the Monitoring Group,
I would ask the Minister to go ahead and try to get that off the ground. It was worthwhile. The initial allocation was £80,000, £40,000 from the EEC and £20,000 each from the two sovereign Governments. I ask that this report be not allowed to gather any more dust.
Given the urgent need of the limited works and the struggle to secure EEC funding for them it might be asked why a large part of the fund has been left unexpended. I believe that we are looking a gift horse in the mouth. Any country getting £1 for £1 at a time like this should go open-armed to collect it. An amendment by the Minister saying that he is going to urge local authorities to do something about it is not good enough. Something positive must be done.
The report I have referred to mentioned telecommunications. That is a laugh. In the area where I live we have still a number of manual exchanges. People are coming into this House about them day after day and I heard a Minister of State in the Department responsible for Posts and Telegraphs claiming that we would have telephones on demand inside a few months. They expect to hand them down like packets of sweets. In the area I have referred to, not alone can we not get telephones for years, but the system has deteriorated since most of the other areas of the country went automatic. We have appealed about this year after year and money is made available for it in the Border Counties Fund.
In that area the roads structure is not good. Research done recently by the technical staff of Monaghan County Council revealed that we would require to get and spend twice the money that we have been spending even to keep our roads passable.
If we are sincere about improving cross-Border co-operation, about building bridges between the people on both sides and improving the climate between both communities we should spend more money on road structures in those areas. The connecting roads between national primary and national secondary roads, North and South, should be improved. The Minister should go to Brussels and get agreement for additional money to improve facilities in those areas. The goodwill exists in Brussels but we are not availing of the handouts. The Minister should ensure that Government agencies responsible for expending EEC funds in Border areas do not fall down in their task.
