Regional Assemblies in Ireland - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, regions are arranged for statistical and revenue disbursing purposes using the NUTS

Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics or Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes...

structure. In Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

, the regionalisation arrangements negotiated by the Government of Ireland in the context of Agenda 2000

Agenda 2000

Agenda 2000 was an action programme of the European Union whose main objectives were to reform the Common Agricultural Policy and Regional policy, and establish a new financial framework for the years 2000–06 with a view to the then upcoming Eastern Enlargement of the European Union.Its stated...

resulted in the designation of the State into two regions for Eurostat

Eurostat

Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide the European Union with statistical information at European level and to promote the integration of statistical methods across the Member States of the European Union,...

and EU Structural Funds purposes. Following this designation, two new regions (and their associated Regional Assemblies) were established and came into effect in July 1999: Southern and Eastern NUTS-II Region and Border, Midland and Western NUTS-II Region.

NUTS Level 2 regions

The two NUTS 2 regions of Ireland are managed within the "Regional Assemblies in Ireland" system. Both regions had "Objective 1" status for EU Structural Funds purposes.

The remaining part of the island of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, is both a NUTS 1
First level NUTS of the European Union
The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, , is a geocode standard for referencing the administrative divisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard was developed by the European Union.There are three levels of NUTS defined, with two levels of local administrative units ...

and a NUTS 2 level area. This means that there are two NUTS 1 entities on the island.

Function of the assemblies

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 assemblies

There are no direct elections to the Regional Assemblies. They are instead composed of elected representatives nominated by members of those NUTS III level Regional Authorities that comprise each NUTS II level region. Each Regional authority has a certain number of nominations to an Assembly, based loosely on the population of the Region. The BMW Assembly has a total of 29 members and the S+E Assembly has 41 members.

Governance of the assemblies

Each Assembly has 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.

Each Assembly has a Monitoring Committee for the implementation of the Regional Operational Programme in the region whose function is to:

satisfy itself as to the effectiveness and quality of the implementation of all expenditure;
to consider the progress and impact of both co-financed and non-co-financed expenditure in the region; and
to make recommendations to the Regional Assembly, the relevant implementing government department at national level and the Department of Finance.

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

Financing the assemblies

The Assemblies are funded by central government through the Department of Finance. The costs of the other activities of the Regional Assemblies are funded by their constituent local authorities.

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