Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I would probably not have got it anyway. It was an interesting discussion when one considers the logic of a public servant driving to the city and being against decentralisation.

The economic and social structure of the programme originally had a ratio of 27:73; that of employment in human resources development was 29:71; the productive sector was 36:64 and for technical assistance the ratio was 38:62. Under the PEACE II programme, all the funds went to the BMW region. The actual figures for the ratio at the mid-point were 22:78, which indicates that the Border region slipped 5%. The ratio for employment was 29:71, which figure was planned and on target. The productive sector ratio was 24:76, which represented the largest drop. However, the other ratios were all on target. Sometimes the position is put that all the ratios fell behind. I accept there are areas in which they did, but not to the extent suggested.

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