EU signs £3bn in aid in recognition of constructive use

"It is like signing a cheque for £3 billion, in front of witnesses," EU Commissioner Mr Michel Barnier said in Dublin yesterday as he put his name to the agreement for the EU contribution to the National Development Plan 2000 to 2006.

Mr Barnier said the £2.5 billion in structural funding, coupled with the £446 million in cohesion funding, was further evidence of the Commission's very positive response to the way European money has been spent here in recent years.

The cohesion and structural funds, jointly known as the Community Support Framework (CSF), may represent the last CSF agreement for the Republic as the strong local economy takes over and the EU directs its aid towards emerging member states in the East.

Projects on which the money will be spent include the development of infrastructure which Mr Barnier noted still lagged behind Europe "both within and outside Dublin". He said the funding would also aid employment and human resources; productive sector investment; balanced regional development and rural development.

The successful use of EU funding in the past was evidenced by the current prosperity and while the Republic had been "somewhat a victim of its own success" in that EU funding support was tapering off, he noted that the Border Midlands and Western region would continue to receive funding as an Objective One area while the EU was "only gradually reducing the effort in the east".

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said he was satisfied with the progress made in implementing the "unprecedented level of infrastructural investment under the National Development Plan".

Figures obtained by The Irish Times for National Development Plan spending for the first six months of this year show most departments falling marginally behind their spending targets by single figure percentage points. This is normal as most department capital spending traditionally occurs in the second half of the year.

The exceptions appear to be the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which is behind by 18 per cent, and the Department of Public Enterprise which is behind its spending target by 31 per cent. A spokesman repeated however that the figures were preliminary and end-of-year figures were likely to show a more advanced picture.

Mr McCreevy said the Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure was satisfied, on the basis of a recent meeting with the National Roads Authority and CIE, that so far the key transport projects were either on or ahead of target.