Still the poor relation

THE COST OF CHEAP TALK The northwest is the only region of Ireland to become ‘significantly poorer’ relative to the European average.


It will not come as a surprise to anyone who has been monitoring regional development in Ireland that our north and west continue to be a ‘region in transition’ and a ‘lagging region’.  
As reported in The Sunday Business Post at the weekend, the north and west of Ireland has become ‘significantly poorer’ relative to the European average over recent years. It is the only region in Ireland to be so classified.
The north and west region, which includes Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Donegal and Monaghan, was downgraded to a ‘region in transition’ two years ago and the latest assessment from the European Commission shows no improvement.
Indeed, quite the opposite. The region’s GDP per head of population has fallen from 82 percent of the EU average between 2015 and 2017 to an estimated 71 percent now.
The Commission repeated previous concerns that regional disparities in Ireland were among the highest in the EU. It warned that, if not addressed, the trend of growing inequalities between regions would have a ‘damaging impact on the economic and social wellbeing’ of all regions in Ireland.
Of 240 regions in the EU, the north and west is now ranked the 177th most competitive. The assessment was included in a partnership agreement document between Ireland and the EU last week, which unlocked €1.4 billion in funding through the bloc’s cohesion policy.
It is worrying that we must rely on the EU to tell our Government a plain reality – and one they have been frustratingly slow to address.
We have written on the need for balanced regional development in Ireland in these pages for decades, but successive governments have allowed Dublin to grow out of control. Attempts to spread development have been more concentrated in cities like Cork and Limerick than in the north and west of the country.
The Government’s attitude towards balanced regional development was made crystal clear when Leo Varadkar, the incoming Taoiseach, in 2010, as the then Minister of Transport, removed the entire west and north west from the EU TEN-T Core funding network with the stroke of a pen. This potentially robbed the region of billions in EU supports for major infrastructural projects.
If the region were left in the Core funding network, it would see a lot more progress and completion on much-needed projects like a motorway north of Tuam in the direction of Donegal and the Western Rail Corridor that extends into Mayo and on towards Sligo.
Our columnist John Bradley has frequently argued about the need for proper devolved government in Ireland, as we’ve become one of the most centralised governments in the EU.
Instead, we stand on the fringes, neglected. Be in no doubt, the Government’s almost contemptuous attitude towards the west and the north west has us where we are.
“Balanced regional development is a key priority of this government, and this priority is at the heart of Project Ireland 2040,” a spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform told The Sunday Business Post.
Talk is cheap.