Regions must be made top priority

Political reporter Mary Dundon reports on the gulf in incomes between Dublin and the regions.

BALANCED regional development must be given top priority following the revelation that people living in Dublin have over 16% more money to spend than those living in the rest of the country, Fine Gael said yesterday.

People living in the Midlands are the worst off with 13.7% less money to spend than the national average, according to a Central Statistics Office (CSO) survey published yesterday.

And many of the counties excluded from lucrative EU funding were continuing to suffer from lower incomes in 2001, the CSO County Incomes and Regional GDP survey revealed.

It also showed that:

€15,953 was the average disposable income in the State.

€18,620 was the disposable income of people living in the Dublin region.

€14,428 was the disposable income of people living in the Border, Midlands and Western regions, 9.6% below the State average.

This prompted Fine Gael and Labour to call on the Government yesterday to give regional development priority and ensure that the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) is fast-tracked to bring more jobs to the regions.

Fine Gael’s Environment spokesman Bernard Allen said most of the country’s wealth was still concentrated on the east coast.

“There is no evidence that the key National Spatial Strategy principles of developing gateways and hubs for development outside Dublin are being implemented by the Government,” Mr Allen said.

Labour’s Environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said the Government must ensure that road infrastructure and broadband technology is in place to attract major companies to the regions.

“If we are to address the massive house crisis and get people to move out of Dublin we have to provide jobs,” he said.

But a Department of the Environment spokesman rejected the claims that the Government was not pushing ahead with the National Spatial Strategy and delivering balanced regional development.

“The NSS is a 20-year plan and the Minister for the Environment is ensuring that there is a bias against Dublin, while the Minister for Communications is ensuring the broadband technology is in place and the Finance Minister is delivering a decentralisation programme,” Mr Cullen’s spokesman said.