Within the European Union, regions are arranged for statistical and revenue disbursing purposes using the NUTS structure. In Ireland, the regionalisation arrangements negotiated by the Government of Ireland in the context of Agenda 2000 resulted in the designation of the State into two regions for Eurostat 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.
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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.
| Border, Midland and Western | |
|---|---|
| — Region — | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Area[1] | |
| • Total | 33,252.3 km2 (12,838.8 sq mi) |
| Population (2007)[2] | |
| • Total | 1,166,500 |
| • Density | 35.1/km2 (90.9/sq mi) |
| NUTS code | IE01 |
| GDP per capita (PPS) | € 24,500 (2006)[3] |
| Southern and Eastern | |
|---|---|
| — Region — | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Area[10] | |
| • Total | 36,544.8 km2 (14,110 sq mi) |
| Population (2007)[11] | |
| • Total | 3,190,400 |
| • Density | 87.3/km2 (226.1/sq mi) |
| NUTS code | IE02 |
| GDP per capita (PPS) | € 38,600 (2006)[12] |
The Assemblies also host the INTERREG IIIB contact points in Ireland.
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.
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:
Each Assembly has a Director and a number of policy, programme and administrative staff.
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.