Farmers have organised protest meetings in the West over the pending changes. And there have been demands for the subdivision of the State, so as to allow the more deprived areas of the Midlands and West to continue to qualify for Objective 1 grant status after the year 2006. In the face of growing agitation, the Government has insisted that EU funding can be maximised through treating the State as a single unit. And the process of drafting a national plan, from 1999 to 2006, begins next month after the closing date for submissions. The next year will be devoted to negotiations with the European Commission on the level of funding to be received through the CAP and from the Structural and Cohesion Funds.
Irish officials are reluctant to disclose their negotiating positions.
And the possibility of adopting a regional structure, at a later date, has not been ruled out. For the past number of years, John Bruton and Fine Gael have advocated full membership of a common European security arrangement. And, more recently, he called for the adoption of a 10-year agricultural plan. Ruairi Quinn, as Minister for Finance, was the first to call for the initiation of a comprehensive 20-year, economic and social development programme.