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We need better public representation in the West to stop the region falling further behind the prosperous eastern side of the country.
“Dublin has a Gross Value Added per person equalled to €105,842, with a national index of 149.1 equating to approximately twice that the level of the national average” according to the Dublin Chamber. Comparatively, the West & North has a GVA per capita Index of 53.4. In layman terms what does this mean? In the West, we are miles behind in terms of economic prosperity, but the dogs on the street already know that! The “To Hell or to Connaught” sentiment of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the 1650s is still alive today.
Dublin is way ahead of the rest of the country, regularly outperforming the EU average and in 2022 was the richest city in Europe in GDP terms. We’d like some of that over in the west.
According to the CSO, “Despite a significant increase, however, the Northern & Western region still significantly lags behind the rest of the country.”
According to the EU Cohesion Policy, the Western Region (including Galway East) is a “Transition Region“. Transition Regions have a GDP per capita of between 75% and 90% of the EU average. Under the European Union’s Cohesion Policy, regions are classified into different categories based on their level of economic development. These categories determine the amount of financial support a region is eligible for from the EU’s structural and investment funds, with the goal of reducing disparities between regions. The West is a Transition Region because it is being neglected.