BMW Regional Assembly - Operational Programme '00 - '06, 1.1 Overview and Background to BMW Regional Operational Programme, Introduction

Introduction

1.1 Overview and Background to BMW Regional Operational Programme

The National Development Plan 2000-2006 identifies balanced regional development as a key objective to be achieved over the period of the Plan. While the positive impact of the unprecedented economic growth experienced over the period 1994 to 1999 in Ireland is evident across the country as a whole, the rapid pace of this growth and the pattern of development, as manifested in increasing urbanisation and clustering of economic activity, have raised issues, particularly in relation to balanced regional development and the distribution of national economic and social progress. The key issues in this regard are:

the growth and expansion of the Greater Dublin area, giving rise to problems of congestion and housing shortage;
the rapid growth of major urban centres outside Dublin and their role in driving the development of their hinterlands and providing a counter-balance to Dublin;
the implications of these trends for smaller towns and villages and rural areas;
the social, economic and environmental consequences of these trends;
the role of infrastructural provision in facilitating and promoting development at regional, as well as at national level;
how the investments needed to underpin sustained economic progress at the national level might, at the same time, more effectively advance balanced regional development; and
the relationship between economic and social planning, physical planning and land use policies.

The regionalisation arrangements negotiated by the Irish authorities in the context of the Agenda 2000 Agreement, namely the designation of the country into two NUTS II Regions, were part of the response to these issues. The new regions are:

the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) region which has retained Objective 1 status for Structural Funds for the full period to 2006; and
the Southern and Eastern (S&E) region which will qualify for a six-year phasing out regime for Objective 1 Structural Funds up to the end of 2005.

The Government’s objective for regional policy is to achieve balanced regional development in order to reduce the disparities between and within the two regions and to develop the potential of both to contribute to the greatest possible extent to the continuing prosperity of the country. Policy to this end will be advanced in parallel with policies to ensure that development is sustainable, with full regard to the quality of life, social cohesion and conservation of natural and cultural heritage.

The specific designation of the two regions is part of the process of achieving more balanced regional development, in that it enables a clear focus on the key issues facing each of the regions and allows for a differentiation and targeting of policies in a manner which recognises their key attributes and needs. In particular, it has highlighted the differentiation in the level and rate of development between the more prosperous S&E region and the BMW region and has thus emphasised the priority which needs to be afforded to the latter in terms of investment and development.

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