Sinn Féin has slammed the Government's rural development plan and described the €60million allocated over three years is little more than "window-dressing".

A total of 600 towns throughout Ireland are to share the money.

TD for Public Expenditure and Reform David Cullinane said: "The announcement once again of an Atlantic economic corridor is meaningless without an actual strategy for the West and the island in general that is backed up with funds.

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"The deficit in capital investment over the past eight years means that the current state of our infrastructure is a significant impediment to current and future growth in productivity.

"It is difficult to see how this announcement today will bring balance to current Government policy which privileges Dublin and the M50 over the regions.

"Less spin and more planning, backed up with proper financial commitments, is what rural Ireland desperately needs."

(CD)