1: ELECTED PROVINCIAL ASSEMBLIES

The IDP believes that the first step to economic equality for all regions of Ireland is to put in place elected Provincial Assemblies.
These elected Assemblies would pool the resources of their counties for more effective results and powers would also be devolved from central government.
There are many areas where it is better to have national governmental structures and other areas where local government structures work best.
For example, our local county councils are too small to address local problems such as housing and the national government is too removed from the regions to address these issues.
So you constantly hear national politicians blaming local councils for local problems and local councils blame the central government.
Basically, local councils are not large enough to execute some government policies effectively.

Provincial Assemblies would have the size and power to execute local government more effectively. The administration of Irish rugby demonstrates how a provincial structure has delivered benefits.
Prior to Irish rugby becoming professional, the game in Ireland was based around the club.
By arranging the structure on a provincial basis and allowing each province to mange it’s own team, rugby in Ireland has been transformed.
The IRFU still manages the game centrally and each province competes with each other and this competition has lifted rugby in all provinces.
If the IRFU had retained the same club structure into the professional era, then the game in Ireland would be similar to Scotland or Wales at a club level.
The Irish Government must empower each province to have greater management control over its development.
Elected Provincial Assemblies are essential.

Policy Actions

• Directly elected Provincial Minister and Provincial Deputy Minister.
• Provincial Cabinet elected by councillors in each Province.
• Election to happen in conjunction with council elections.

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2: PROVINCIAL PUBLIC SERVICES

The IDP believes that many public services could be administered more effectively on a provincial basis. We constantly have State organisations redrawing their own regional divisions which leads to confusion among the general public.
For instance, a county in the midlands might find itself in a Garda West division and in the HSE East division at the same time.
It gives the inhabitants the impression that Public Services are disorganised and incoherent.
Where state organisations need to manage their operations on a regional basis, the IDP believes that it would be much more simple for everyone if their structures overlapped with the four Provinces.
By following this approach over a long period of time, it would be much easier to find out how well each region within an organisation is performing.

The IDP believes that each Province should have it’s own budget for services such as provincial transport, green energy retrofit, water services etc. Historically, central funds seem to have been provided on the basis of where ministers came from. This has led to uneven economic development across Ireland. Provincial infrastructure budgets will help to address this issue.
If counties can pool their budgets on a provincial basis, citizens will get more bang for their buck. Take secondary roads for example. A secondary road in a province might join three towns in three different counties. Each county awards a separate contract for the resurfacing of its share of the road which leads to higher costs and varying road surfaces across the three counties.
Obviously, it would be better to award one contract across the three counties and have a better road and lower costs.

We believe that provincial budgets as opposed to county budgets will lead to better public services and better value public services for Irish citizens.

Policy Actions

• Creation of Provincial infrastructure budget.
• Re-organisation of some state bodies on a provincial basis.
• Creation of Provincial transport strategy.
• CO2 targets on a Provincial level.
• Provincial housing strategy.

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3: PROVINCIAL INVESTMENT INCENTIVES

The key to all economic development is intelligent investment.
Investment incentives can be very powerful. Let’s call a spade a spade. Most US companies invest in Ireland because of the low corporation tax.
The Dublin area has soaked up most of the high tech FDI over the last few decades and will continue to do so due to its connectivity and human capital base.
Therefore, there is absolutely no need to waste Irish tax payers funds in the form of grant aid to foreign companies investing in the Dublin area.

IDA grants for foreign companies investing in Ireland should be greater for companies investing outside of Dublin.

Similarly Irish companies should receive favorable treatment for investing outside of Dublin. This could be in the form of grants or tax breaks.
Many towns in the provinces are struggling due to the growth of online trade and depopulation.
It is time for a radical reform of the rates system as it is contributing to the death of regional towns. Perhaps each province should get its pro-rated share of the VAT collected from the province instead.
This is what the EU is proposing on a national basis so if it is good enough for them it should be good enough for the Irish Provinces.

Policy Actions

• FDI grants skewed in favour of provincial investments.
• Tax breaks for Irish companies investing outside of Dublin.
• Local government to be funded through share of Provincial VAT.

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ULSTER UNWRAPPED