The Council for the West has called on the Oireachtas to ensure that Government spending commitments are met for the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region.
The lobby group, led by western bishops and chaired by Mayo businessman Seán Hannick, has written to all Oireachtas members outlining its growing concern about the shortfall in National Development Plan (NDP) allocations for the region.
Government-supplied figures show that the national plan commitments for the EU-designated Objective One region are "lagging well behind what was promised", the council has said. This will have "long-lasting consequences for the region in terms of infrastructure, jobs and broadband", it has said.
Last October, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen told the Dáil that the spending shortfall for the BMW counties between January 2000 and the end of June 2005 was €3.65 billion. He was replying to a question tabled by Mayo TD Beverley Flynn (Ind).
Mr Hannick said yesterday that he had "no reason to believe the position has improved dramatically in the interim".
On March 29th, Minister for Transport Martin Cullen told the Dáil that spending on national roads in the BMW area was almost €500 million behind national plan commitments.
"These are enormous sums of money unspent in the region of greatest need," Mr Hannick said, "and it is crucial that Oireachtas members endeavour to do all in their power to ensure that the commitments entered into are delivered under the current NDP.
"The NDP was meant to close the gap between east and west but if the money allocated to the BMW region is not spent within the time frame then it is obvious that the gap can only widen. If that is happening at a time of economic growth, then surely the consequences for the region must be questioned."
The economic divide was highlighted almost five years ago in a Western Development Commission report, which called for rapid remedial action for the west. It said that poor roads and a weak power and telecommunications infrastructure were preventing the west from competing with the more developed east and south.
