The Government has been urged to give priority to the development and investment needs of the south-east region as work continues on the new National Plan that will form the basis of Ireland's application to Brussels for the next round of structural funds covering the seven-year period from the end of 1999.
The demand for "a fair deal" for the region was made as the South-East Regional Authority published its submission to the Minister for Finance of its investment priorities.
Cllr James Curtis, chairman of the regional authority, outlined concern at the economic plight and poor economic performance of the south-east over recent years.
"This region," he said, "is performing poorly in economic terms, is losing ground to other regions, is failing to attract its share of high-tech industry, has a poorly developed services sector, a very significant deficit in its transport and other infrastructure, and is not receiving its fair share of structural funds or national investment."
With 11 per cent of the state's population and over 13 per cent of its land area, the south-east is receiving only 9.4 per cent of structural funds in the current round, he said. The authority believes this inequity is resulting in a loss of investment in the region of £170 million over the six years to 1999.
Figures were quoted on key economic indicators to support the case. Regional income levels were at 86 per cent of the national average in 1995. Less than 13 per cent of the south-east's population has attended third-level education, compared to 18 per cent throughout the State.
Unemployment is 13 per cent, compared to 11.8 per cent in the State. Risk and incidence of poverty level is 15 per cent, as against 14 per cent for the State. The region's proportion of national industrial output fell from 12 per cent to 10 per cent over the 1993-95 period, while growth in foreign-owned firms was 12 per cent below the national level.
However, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Mr Martin Cullen, who received the submission, disagreed with its conclusions and said he had an alternative set of statistics.
"The information I have is that the south-east is one of the best-performing regions in the country," he said, adding that it was not up to Ireland to adopt a regional approach in drawing up the National Plan for submission to Brussels.
