Regional income differentials and the issue of Regional Equalisation in Ireland.

Promoting balanced regional development has been a long-term public policy objective ever since the establishment of the Congested Districts Boards at the turn of the century. However, although Regional Development Organisations were set up in 1969, there has not been a clearly articulated strategy for regional policy. The only clear semblance of a regional policy which can be identified is the existence of measures such as regionally differentiated industrial grants, devised in an attempt to influence the spatial dispersion of mobile investment, and the Compensatory Allowance Scheme (“headage” payments) in the case of agriculture which is targeted towards the so-called disadvantaged areas