First, I do not expect the matter to be finally resolved on Friday as another meeting is scheduled for July. Second, I have not seen the document referred to by Deputy O'Malley but if I am to judge by the reports I read in the newspapers about the criteria applied — or which some officials say is being applied in Brussels — that per capita income is the criteria by which our allocation will be decided and if that is the true position then I can tell the House, and the Commission indirectly, that it is totally unacceptable and is not the only criteria on which allocations will be judged at the end of the day. In May Ireland submitted a detailed objective criteria to the EC Commission justifying an allocation of £8 billion. We are not seeking a percentage of all Structural Funds, only those applying to Objective I regions. The detailed criteria which we submitted followed directly from the Edinburgh Conclusions and include not only income per capita but peripherality, unemployment, long term unemployment, migration, dependency, population density and other indicators of rural disadvantage. That is the basic criteria which we have put forward and since then we have heard nothing to suggest our case is not being accepted. I am sure it is quite clear to Deputies that two countries or regions could have the exact same income per capita but if one is peripheral or more structurally disadvantaged than the other then clearly both should not receive the same amount. We have taken the capacity and structural disadvantages into account and have produced a transparent basis which shows that Ireland should maintain its existing share of Structural Funds.
