Originally, an indicative budget of €30.476 million was identified for the tourism and angling recreational measure under both the Border, midland and western and the southern and eastern regional operational programmes of the National Development Plan 2000-2006. The launch of the measure was delayed pending State aids clearance from the EU Commission, which was received in March 2002. A decision was made, in the context of other budgetary priorities, to curtail the actual allocation to the measure. The expenditure incurred to the end of 2002 was €504,025 for the Border, midland and western region and €715,154 for the southern and eastern region. There was no expenditure in 2003, 2004 or 2005 and no expenditure has been provided for the measure in the Department's budget for 2006.