Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I welcome the PEACEPLUS programme and look forward to it opening so it can be availed of. The west and north west of Ireland has been downgraded to a lagging region by the European Commission after becoming significantly poorer relative to the European average.

The region's GDP per head of population has fallen from 82% of the EU average between 2015 and 2017 to an estimated 71%. The region, which covers Mayo, Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim, Sligo, Donegal, Monaghan and Mayo, was downgraded from being a more developed region to being a transition region and a lagging region, making it the only part of Ireland to receive this classification. The European Commission warned that regional disparities in Ireland were among the highest in the EU. It warned that, if left unchecked, the trend of growing inequalities between regions would have a damaging impact on the economic and social well-being of all of the regions of Ireland. Sadly, this is not something that those of us living in the west do not already know. We have had these multiple warnings and I think we need to examine further how we will address this gap.

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