Regional Assemblies in Ireland

The regionalisation arrangements negotiated by the Irish Government in the context of Agenda 2000 resulted in the designation of Ireland into two Regions for EU Structural Funds purposes (NUTS II level): The Border Midland & Western Region (BMW Region) which has Objective 1 status for the full period to 2006; and the Southern and Eastern Region (S&E Region) which has a phasing out regime for Objective 1 until the end of 2005.

Following this designation, two new Regional Assemblies were established and came into effect in July 1999. The main responsibilities of the Assemblies are:

• to manage the Regional Operational Programmes under the National Development Plan

• to monitor the general impact of all EU programmes under the National Development Plan/Community Support Framework

• to promote coordination in the provision of public services in the Assembly areas

The Assemblies also host the INTERREG IIIB contact points in Ireland.

Membership of the Regional Assemblies

There are no direct elections to the Regional Assemblies. Instead they are composed of elected representatives nominated by the local authorities from the membership of the Regional Authorities within each region. Each local authority has a certain number of nominations to an Assembly, based loosely on the population of the local authority area. The BMW Assembly has a total of 29 members and the S+E Assembly has 41 members.

tructure of the Regional Assemblies

The Regional Assemblies also have an Operational Committee, which is composed of Chief Executive Officers of public authorities in the region and the Directors and Cathaoirligh (Chairpersons) of the Regional Authorities in the region. This committee is chaired by the Cathaoirleach of the Regional Assembly and its key tasks are to advise and assist the Assembly in the discharge of its functions.

The Regional Assemblies also have a Monitoring Committee for the implementation of the Regional Operational Programme in the region. The general role of this committee is to:

(1) satisfy itself as to the effectiveness and quality of the implementation of all expenditure;

(2) to consider the progress and impact of both co-financed and non-co-financed expenditure in the region; and

(3) to make recommendations to the Regional Assembly, the relevant implementing government department at national level and the Department of Finance.

Each Regional Assembly has a Director and a number of policy, programme and administrative staff.

Financing of the Regional Assemblies

The Regional Assemblies are funded their costs by the Department of Finance in carrying out their functions as the managing authorities for the regional Operational Programmes. The costs of the other activities of the Regional Assemblies are funded by their constituent local authorities.

List Of Assemblies

* Border, Midlands and Western Regional Assembly
* Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly

External links

* [http://www.iro.ie/index.shtml Irish Regions Office]
* [http://www.bmwassembly.ie Border, Midlands and Western Regional Assembly]
* [http://www.seregassembly.ie Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly]