Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Finance the steps he is taking to ensure that the national development plan is fully implemented in the Border, midlands and western region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26543/05]

Denis Naughten (Longford-Roscommon, Fine Gael)
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Question 152: To ask the Minister for Finance the steps he is taking to implement objective one in transition in the Border, midlands and western region; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26544/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 132 and 152 together.

The responsibility of my Department is to ensure that resources are made available to meet the Government's priorities and to secure full drawdown of Ireland's allocation of structural funds. To date, the level of Exchequer resources made available under the NDP has been greater than originally profiled.

Significant progress continues to be made in the implementation of the national development plan in the Border, midland and west region. The most recent monitoring data reported to my Department indicates that overall some €9.6 billion has been expended under the plan over the period January 2000 to December 2004. In 2004 alone, more than €1 billion was spent on the key economic and social infrastructure programme in the BMW region. This represented 96% of projected expenditure for the year 2004 with total expenditure at 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 all of 2003. 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.

While performance of the productive sector operational programme remains behind the original targets set in 1999 in both the BMW and southern and eastern regions, performance of both regional operational programmes remains strong in relation to public sector investment in local infrastructure, micro-enterprise support and social inclusion but weaker on schemes dependent on private sector demand, particularly in the agricultural sector. Expenditure on the employment and human resource development operational programme is broadly consistent with targets in both regions with expenditure of nearly €3 billion or 94% of the original expenditure targets being incurred in the BMW region for the period 2000 to 2004.

The Deputy will be aware that expenditure under the EU funded elements of the operational programmes will continue until the end of 2008. Therefore, expenditure which will occur in the years 2007 and 2008 must be considered when viewing the rate of progress on the measures supported by the structural funds. To ensure full utilisation of structural funds and matching public resources, expenditure levels should exceed 50% at the end of 2004 the mid-way point in the programming period. At the end of 2004 estimated expenditure of the structural funds and matching public resources amounted to €1.4 billion or 72% of profile. This is above the mid-way target and should ensure that all structural funds for the programming period 2000-06 are fully expended.

The BMW region is categorised as an Objective 1 region for the full programming period 2000-2006. Due to the growth of the region's economy relative to the EU average, the region will qualify for structural funds under the proposed regional competitiveness and employment objective or Objective 2 for the period 2007-13. The transitional arrangements proposed for natural growth regions, such as the BMW, are not yet finalised at this stage due to uncertainty over the EU's financial perspective for the 2007-13 period and the ongoing negotiation of the structural funds' regulatory framework for the future planning period.