Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 154: To ask the Minister for Finance the steps he is taking in order that the national development plan is fully implemented in the BMW region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18740/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy will be aware that investments under the national development plan are delivered through a number of operational programmes which are directly managed and implemented by Departments, the regional assemblies or other agencies. The responsibility of my Department is to ensure that resources are made available to meet the Government's objectives and to secure full draw-down of Ireland's allocation of Structural Funds.

All Departments have been asked to ensure that the investment objectives for the BMW region are prioritised. It is my objective that as major projects are completed more funds will become available over the remainder of the NDP for investment in the BMW region so that progress can be made on rectifying the existing imbalance.

Overall progress on delivering the NDP has been improving with some €36.2 billion of expenditure incurred nationally at the end of December 2004. This compares with €28 billion of expenditure at the end of December 2003. With respect to expenditure in the BMW region, total expenditure reported to the operational programme monitoring committees at their April meetings amounted to some €12.3 billion or nearly 78% of profiled expenditure for the period January 2000 to December 2004. In 2004 just over €1 billion was spend on the key economic and social infrastructure programme in the BMW region. This represented 96% of projected expenditure for the year 2004.

Total expenditure achieved nearly 90% of projected levels for the period January 2000 to December 2004. In the national roads programme €168 million more was spent in the BMW region in 2004 than in 2003. This attests to the continued significant improvement in investment in the region. In the housing programme, expenditure in the BMW region from January 2000 to December 2004 reached 120% of projected expenditure for the period. Expenditure on the health programme over the same period amounted to 99% of forecast.

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Finance the steps he is taking to implement Objective One in transition in the BMW region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18741/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Under proposals advanced by the European Commission, EU regions will be eligible for Structural Funds under three objectives. The convergence objective will be broadly similar to the current Objective One, with regions having GDP per capita below 75% of the EU-25 average eligible for the highest level of support. The regional competitiveness and employment objective covers all regions not eligible for the convergence objective. A third objective aims to support cross-border and transnational co-operation. Transitional arrangements are proposed for regions which are eligible for Objective One support under the current round of Structural Funds but, because of natural growth, are not eligible for such support after 2006. The BMW region will be eligible for this transitional support under the regional competitiveness and employment objective.

The draft regulations for the Structural Funds programming period for 2007-13 provide that the Council will adopt strategic guidelines addressing the key challenges for the Community and providing linkages with other Community policies. Following adoption and publication of these guidelines, each member state will prepare a national strategic reference framework on its development strategy for the Structural Funds. This framework will outline the thematic and regional programmes which the member state proposes and will be agreed with the Commission before operational programmes are adopted in late 2006 or early 2007. Unlike previous rounds, a national development plan will not need to be prepared by member states.

The Commission has prepared a draft of the strategic guidelines and have had initial consultations with member states and other partners in advance of adoption by the Council later this year. Preliminary preparations for the national strategic reference framework are being undertaken by the Department of Finance in consultation with other key Departments and the Commission. Development of operational programmes will begin later this year with a view to presentation to the Commission for agreement by the end of 2006.