Wicklow included in Four Billion Pound Spending
October 26, 2000
A massive £4.2 billion spending plan for the Southern and Eastern regions is in the works and will include County Wicklow. The regions in question comprise the counties which did not qualify for full Objective 1 status in the current round of the EU structural funding and essentially includes the southern half of the country below a line drawn from Kerry to Meath.. Members of the Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly's monitoring committee meet on Thursday to make decisions on who should manage local schemes, and discuss what criteria will apply for the selection of qualifying projects.
The package is broken down into four primary headings, which are £2.4 billion for local infrastructure; £917million towards social inclusion; £505 million for local enterprise development; and £422 for agricultural and rural development. The spending package will include such essentials as waste management, which has been allocated £500 million. Another £262 million is to be spent on culture, recreation and sport; with £238million going to e-commerce and communications.
All in all this is indeed good news for the Wicklow and southern regions in general. The social inclusion package will see another £295 million going towards local development and £248 million on childcare. It was pointed out that micro enterprises and tourism would be the biggest beneficiaries of the local enterprise programme. Wicklow will of course benefit proportionally along with other qualifying counties in the scheme.
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