The White Paper And Regional Policy

This article reviews the regional aspects of the White Paper on unemployment. In order to establish a context for the review, the paper outlines regional policy aspects of the 1994 Kelty Report on regional development and the 1993 Green Paper on unemployment. While the Federal Government gives public recognition to the need for regional development, especially in the context of reducing long-term unemployment, there has been little in the way of concrete policy support forthcoming. Overall, the approach towards regional policy and regional unemployment is in keeping with the general policy approach of the government. It seeks to free up market impediments, improve supply side conditions and economic growth will do the rest. Under this approach, pockets of regional deprivation and high regional unemployment will continue even in an economy experiencing high and sustained growth rates.