NWRA calls for ‘regional investment accelerator’ to distribute funding

The Northern and Western Regional Assembly has called for a dedicated ‘investment accelerator’ to be set up to distribute Government and EU regional development funds – in an effort to address an imbalance.

The Government is about to decide how to spend the €1.2 billion pot of EU Cohesion Funds for the period 2021 to 2027 with €350 million allocated for the Northern and Western Region.

The NWRA wants the Government to give local bodies more control over how the 2021 to 2027 funds are spent – it suggests replicating a model that has been successfully rolled out in the Cornwall region of England.

This week, it launched a campaign called ‘Let’s Be More’ to address inequality and economic decline in the region.

The NWRA believes the region can do more with funding by:

• Being allowed to make more localised investment decisions using a new instrument called an Integrated Territorial Investment (ITI)
• Encouraging more action’ to stimulate research and innovation
• Doing more to facilitate local industrial transition and entrepreneurship
• Offering more SME supports and funds for urban rural regeneration.
• Funding more climate-friendly innovations

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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