The Council for the West has stepped up its campaign for proper development of the region. With five months to an election, the council is setting up an umbrella body for all economic and social groupings committed to the issue.
The West Infrastructure Now (WIN) campaign aims to "harness the energy of the people of the west" to support, facilitate and ensure the delivery of the National Development Plan (NDP). It also want to see the recommendations made in the Western Develop ment Commission's latest report acted upon without further delay.
The State of the West published by the WDC last July noted that regional disparities were continuing to grow between the west and more developed east and southern regions, and said it wasn't just a question of money. Deregulation of services such as electricity, gas and telecommunications was one of the major factors in worsening the regional divide, it said.
It noted that the bulk of the investment in the NDP was going to congested areas, and said that a new strategic approach to infrastructural development in the west was required. Key decision-makers in Government Departments must focus on western issues, it said.
Since that report was published, the Government's sole public response has been the Clar programme for rural regeneration, promoted by the Minister of State for Rural Development, Mr Eamon Ó Cuív. Last October the WDC chief executive, Mr Liam Scollan, announced his resignation and said it was for personal reasons. However, a WDC board meeting on October 11th had called for a meeting with the Taoiseach as a "matter or urgency", a reflection of its alarm at indications that Clar would not be followed up by anything else.
That meeting with the Taoiseach is now set for January 22nd, the day before the last gathering of the current WDC board. It is believed that alarm within Fianna Fáil at the results of the recent TG4 constituency poll of Sligo-Leitrim may have influenced the decision by the Taoiseach's office to meet the commission after all.
Commission members are remaining tight-lipped about the meeting, but the WIN campaign intends to be as vocal as possible over the next five months. Mr Sean Hannick, vice-chairman of the Council for the West, says that no time can be lost in co-ordinating the efforts of all of the economic and social interests in the region to push for essential infrastructure within the NDP time frame of 2000-2006.
Total expenditure on infrastructure during the NDP is expected to reach around €7.62 billion in the west. The WIN campaign wants to see improved roads, a better rail network, upgrading of existing air services, a better telecommunications infrastructure and energy. It wants to see extension of the electricity grid through the west, and extension of the gas pipeline strategically placed throughout the western region.
"All of us in the region know we must have those services to a standard available on the east coast to attract sufficient jobs and prevent the haemorrhage of young people out of our rural towns and villages into the cities," Mr Hannick says.