Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 177: To ask the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs the areas which are in the CLÁR programme; the criteria used to define an area; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7290/05]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The areas included in the CLÁR programme are parts of counties Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath and all of County Leitrim. The 16 areas originally selected for inclusion in the CLÁR programme were those which suffered the greatest population decline from 1926 to 1996, with the exception of the Cooley Peninsula which was included based on the serious difficulties caused there by foot and mouth disease. The population loss in the areas ranged from 42% to 60% with an average population loss in the 16 areas of 50%. The aggregate population in each area was over 4,000.

The methodology used in deciding the areas to be included was identification of the district electoral divisions, DEDs, which lost the most population in that period. However, so that the areas had some meaningful correlation with identifiable communities, the natural geographic features such as major lakes or the sea and other boundaries as well as DED boundaries were used. Given the nature of the exercise, in some cases the selected areas straddled two or more counties.

Arising from the commitment in An Agreed Programme for Government, following an analysis of the 2002 population census data, the CLÁR areas were reviewed and extended. The exercise involved identifying and including any DEDs with a more than 50% population decline contiguous to existing CLÁR areas. In the case of Donegal, contiguity was taken to include contiguity across narrow inlets due to the extreme remoteness of the area and the unusual geography.

In addition, the data were examined to establish if there were any other areas of the country where the appropriate population decline had occurred and matched the criterion of an aggregate population of over 4,000. The only county or part of a county non-contiguous to existing CLÁR areas that had significant pockets of population decline was Waterford. A decision was taken to include three pockets in Waterford with a total population of 5,100 and an average population decline of 47%. As a result, the programme now operates in areas in the 18 counties indicated at the outset.

I am sending the Deputy maps of the CLÁR areas with lists of the DEDs included.