Projected expenditure hit in rural areas

THE investment programme for the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs (note that the word rural has been dropped from the title) amounts to €463m over the seven years.

But again, it is front-loaded, with planned expenditure of €105m this year, €86m in each of the years to 2013, and only €40m and €30m in each of the last three years.

A substantial part of the investment of this department is through the LEADER Programme, which is co-funded by the European Union. The programme is scheduled to end in 2013, but with expenditure permitted up to 2015.

The rundown of expenditure is largely explained by the pattern of expenditure on LEADER, with expenditure of €20.9m in 2009 and budgeted expenditure of €40m in 2010.

Presumably, if a new LEADER programme succeeds the present one, there will be capital provision for it.

However, some other programmes of this department are being already run down, including the CLÁR programme (expenditure down in 2010 to €8m from €13.6m in 2009) and expenditure in Gaeltacht areas show a similar decline.

The CLÁR programme is suspended by the recent review, which states that “continued high levels of investment are not sustainable or appropriate in the current economic context”.

Another area where projected expenditure in rural areas will not take place is the decentralisation of the public service. Capital works for offices will fall from an average of €200m per annum between 2004 and 2009 to an average of €60m in the period 2010 to 2016.

Clearly, the Government has been forced by circumstances to alter its priorities.

And some of the decisions taken are justified. However, those who argue about a pro-Dublin bias in the new programme appear to have a strong case. The major priorities cited appear to be the public transport projects (Metro and DART) in the capital. Many in the capital are not convinced about the economic payoff.

There are two distinct priorities in this programme, the heavy investment in industrial research at third-level colleges, and the investment in public transport in Dublin, while more traditional investment such as forestry and agriculture are cut in such a way that the targets set for them seem more difficult to achieve.