Regional moves are ‘on track’

THE Government yesterday declared its decentralisation programme was on track as an extra €200 million plus was pledged towards the scheme in the 2006 Estimates.

The Office of Public Works, which is spearheading the decentralisation programme, was allocated €581m overall, in addition to €23.6m which was underspent this year and which will carry over to next year.

There is provision for €280m to be spent on decentralisation in 2006, compared with €75m in 2005, but the opposition parties claimed the decentralisation project was moving at an “extremely slow” rate.