The National Development Plan, and relevant Operational Programmes for Economic and Social Infrastructure and for the Border, Midlands and Western Region, which derive from it, set out specific expenditure and output targets across a range of areas for which my Department is responsible : housing, water services, non-national roads, rural water supply, waste management, urban and village renewal, habitats conservation and protection, and heritage conservation.
Primary responsibility for the achievement of these outputs rests with the local authorities in the BMW Region who are the Implementing Agencies defined under the Operational Programmes (OPs). My Department will continue to work closely with these local authorities to ensure that funds are allocated to them for the achievement of the outputs, that the necessary expenditure associated with the outputs is incurred and that this expenditure is certified in accordance with prescribed procedures.