EU funding for tourism in the west diverted to childcare

Some €4.36 million in European funding earmarked for tourism support in the west of Ireland was diverted to other projects in 2005 because of concerns that it would be lost to Ireland, according to figures seen by The Irish Times yesterday.

The figures, from the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) Regional Assembly monitoring committee, showed that the funding, allocated by the European Regional Development Fund, was transferred from tourism to childcare.

Expenditure on tourism measures to the end of 2004 in the BMW region was just 1 per cent of spending forecast under the National Development Plan (NDP) 2000 to 2006.

The NDP had forecast that more than €60 million would be spent to develop major attractions in the BMW region during the lifetime of the plan, but no money was disbursed by the end of 2004. Spending on special-interest pursuits was to be €35.58 million, but only €370,000 was expended at the end of 2004. And spending on angling and marine tourism was to be €27 million and €26.5 million respectively, but only €500,000 and €40,000 were spent in each of the categories by the end of 2004.

The marine grant scheme was suspended in 2002 and has not operated since, and the angling grant scheme has not been accessed since 2002 and is currently under review.

Overseas visitors to the BMW region were reduced by 4.6 per cent, and the area's share of overseas revenue fell from 26.5 per cent to 21 per cent over the same period.

The figures emerged following details from Fáilte Ireland earlier this week that visitors to rural Ireland had reduced in 2005 despite an overall increase in overseas visitors nationally.

Seán Hannick, chairman of the Council for the West, a voluntary organisation that campaigns to bring business to the west of Ireland, said that under the NDP a whole raft of tourism measures had been envisaged, but the performance had been abysmal.

"Centralised marketing and concentration of efforts and investment in Dublin and parts of the south are doing nothing to open up the rest of the country to the tourist and the investor, and policies which are affecting this region must be radically altered," he said.

"A dramatic turnaround must now be achieved if money, which clearly needs to be pumped into the tourism sector in the BMW region and is provided for in the NDP, finds viable outlets."

A spokesman for the BMW Regional Assembly said that the reallocation of the €4.6 million funds was a precautionary measure. "This will not result in a reduction in the amount of grants that will be offered to tourism by the Exchequer, although it does reflect a concern that the timeframe to apply for the funding may not be tight enough to meet the EU deadline," he said.

He added that Fáilte Ireland had assured them that projects were on the way.

A spokeswoman for Fáilte Ireland said that to date, from an allocation of €27 million, more than €22 million in grants had been approved for tourism projects in the BMW region.