asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the criteria by which counties are selected for the list of designated counties for the purposes of the higher rate of IDA grants; if he will list the designated counties; if he will show, by way of a tabular statement, the manner in which each of these counties related to the criteria; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Designated Areas.
129.
In May 1988, the Government decided to designate Counties Louth, Wexford, Wicklow and Offaly, together with a small site in Mayfield, Cork, for the higher rate of fixed asset grant, for a period of three years commencing on 1 January 1989. These counties were added to the existing designated counties of Cavan, Clare, excluding the Shannon free zone, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo and parts of Cork and Limerick.
The basis for the Government decision was a report entitled "Designation of Areas for Industrial Policy" published by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) in September 1985 which recommended objective criteria for determining the area to be designated. These criteria were based on labour market imbalance, which is a broadly defined measure of unemployment.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) were commissioned to determine on an independent basis the actual areas which merited designation under the NESC criteria. The results of the ESRI analysis were not published but the counties above covered under the Government decision in May 1988 were those which merited the highest priority for designation under the NESC criteria.