Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

This is not something to go to Europe and make a case on. We need to provide the projects and then look for the funding. I imagine the European Union informed the Department of Finance last year that it had reclassified the Northern and Western Region as a region in transition. It has downgraded it in economic terms due to the lack of funding that had been made available per capitaand this is what it has come up with. I will ask somebody in the Northern and Western Regional Assembly to send that report on to the Minister along with its submission on how we can use this and positively discriminate in favour of the region. Now is the time to look at that. We should be aware that instead of getting 40% of funding for projects from the Structural Fund we can get up to 60% funding. This is how to bring our region back up again.