Seminar to debate £22bn regional spending

Ways to spend £22 billion on regional development are to be discussed today when the Minister for Finance meets union leaders, employers and other groups to consider the National Development Plan for the next six years.

Developing new cities at Athlone and Sligo and expansion of the existing cities of Limerick, Waterford and Galway are among proposals to be discussed at the seminar in Dublin to be addressed by Mr McCreevy.

Smaller regional centres are planned for Castlebar, Tralee, Letterkenny and Dundalk. The focus of the investment will be to redress the "brain drain" to Dublin and the regional imbalance in services.

Creation of a world centre for e-commerce has been identified as a priority for a new Border, Midlands and Western region where telecommunications infrastructure is at its poorest.

The seminar, which will feature addresses from the social partners, will focus on improvements to the State's infrastructure of roads, railways, airports and telecommunications, as well as the need for training and job creation. According to the Department of Finance, the money, with additional funding from the Government's proposed public-private partnerships - if all drawn down - will be the largest investment package in the history of the State.

The discussion will cover the proposed setting up of two new regional authorities, the Border, Midlands and Western region and the Southern and Eastern Region.

Entitled "Priorities for the National Development Plan 2000 - 2006", the seminar is to be addressed by Prof John FitzGerald of the ESRI, Mr Jim Fitzpatrick of the consultants Fitzpatrick Associates, Mr Liam Scollan, chief executive of the Western Development Commission and Mr Tom Kirby and Mr James Stone of the regional assemblies. There will also be addresses by Ms Patricia O'Donovan of the ICTU, Mr Niall Crowley, representing the community sector, Mr Peter Brennan of IBEC and Mr Tom Parlon of the IFA.

The seminar is not open to the public but conclusions are to be circulated at its close.

Specifically the seminar will hear of the need to develop some of the institutes of technology to fill a "graduate gap"; upgrading of Waterford Institute of Technology to university status has already been suggested.

The creation of a world centre for e-commerce has been identified as a priority for the Border, Midlands and Western region where telecommunications infrastructure is at its poorest. The Fitzpatrick plan and the ESRI report have both identified the "roll-out" of high-capacity broadband fibre optic cable to the Border, Midlands and Western region to attract "non-smoke stack" high technology industry.

Taken together, the proposals amount to a necklace of centres outside Dublin served by good rail and road connections, with good telecommunications links and access to roads and airports.