The Council for the West has urged the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, to designate Knock airport for tax breaks in the Budget next month. This would incentivise companies to locate their operations in the airport zone, the group said.
At a meeting in the Department of Finance yesterday afternoon, the lobby group also sought a significant increase in State funding for special programmes in the Border, Midlands and West region.
The Independent MEP and TD, Ms Marian Harkin, who attended the meeting, said the Minister did not make any promises but "certainly gave the impression that he was willing to listen".
The Council for the West wants public funding of the Clár development programme to increase to €100 million per year, from €14 million. It also called for increased funding under the National Development Plan, arguing that the investment in the region to date has fallen significantly behind areas such as the South-East.
The meeting with Mr Cowen was attended by Ms Harkin and the Fianna Fáil MEP for the North West, Mr Seán Ó Neachtáin.
"He listened to what we had to say. He said he would examine the proposals they made on Knock and on Clár, particularly on Knock. He would look at Clár again. But he did say that the Estimates were fixed for this year," Ms Harkin said.
"He seemed interested, to be fair to him. What that will mean at the end of the day I don't know." Ms Harkin, who stressed that she was not speaking for the council, said that Clár was designed to stimulate development in areas of depopulation.
The money available through the programme was very often used to complete the funding for special projects assisted by the EU leader scheme and local county development boards.
