The €800 million in Cohesion Funds allocated to Ireland in the EU budget should be spent in areas like the BMW region and not in the areas where GDP was already 50% ahead of others.
This was advocated by Independent TD and MEP Marian Harkin when she spoke in the Dail on Wednesday, January 25th in the debate on the EU budget.
Deputy Harkin said that only 14% of Cohesion Funds in the period from 2000 to 2003 had been spent in the BMW region. Cohesion meant convergence, and bringing all regions to the same level, and not spending the money on areas where GDP was almost 50% higher than others, she said.
Stressing the importance of rural development funding she said that the almost 35% cut in the EU budget allocated to Ireland had major implications for the rural economy. It was crucial for the Government to make up the deficit and create the rural development policy necessary to offset the reduction in numbers in the agricultural economy, Deputy Harkin said.
She praised the Government for its success in obtaining €200 million for the PEACE Programme for the period 2007-2013. The EU had invested in excess of €1.25 billion in the PEACE programmes and while €200 million was a major reduction, it still represented a genuine commitment from the EU. She called on the Irish and British governments to mainstream funding to PEACE projects in order to offset the decrease from EU sources.
The objective of making the EU the world’s leading economy in regard to innovation and competitiveness was not helped by cutting funding for research and development, Deputy Harkin said. In that context alarm bells should sound in Ireland which had just been ranked 11th in the most recent European Innovation scoreboard and was expected to plummet from 3rd to 21st place in a league table measuring information and communications technology skills, she said.
Given that the EU budget included a cutback on R & D and innovation funding it was imperative for the Government to act decisively to improve Ireland’s place in the research and innovation league tables, Independent TD and MEP Marian Harkin said.
