New report shows west is left behind

Galway needs massive state investment to develop its economic and industrial base – as one step to address the growing regional imbalance across the north and west.

That’s one of the key recommendations in a major new report that highlights the need for ‘positive discrimination’ to accelerate growth and stem the decline in communities across the west.

The report, ‘A Region in Transition: The Way Forward’, found startling levels of inequality in terms of investment across a number of key areas such as health, education, infrastructure and transport. It also revealed that the EU had downgraded the northern and western region from being considered as ‘developed’ and has applied a new designation of ‘in transition’.

The study, carried out by the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, found that infrastructure funding for both health and third-level education in the north and west was below the state average.

The report’s author – NWRA chief economist John Daly – has made eleven key recommendations to address this growing imbalance.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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