Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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161. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to confirm if the Government has handed back €5 million or any other amount to the European Fisheries Fund; and if so, the reason why. [3631/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s Operational Programme under the European Fisheries Fund provided funding for the development of the seafood sector over the period 2008 to 2015. The Programme was funded through an EU allocation of approximately €42 million and €24 million in Exchequer funding, bringing total funds to approximately €66 million. The Programme ended in December 2015 and funding for the seafood sector is now provided through my Department’s new €240 million EMFF Seafood Development Operational Programme, which I formally launched on 14 January 2016.

The accounts for the EFF Programme are not yet finalised, so I cannot provide the Deputy with a final figure on how much in EU or Exchequer funds were invested and how much was unused at the end of the Programme. Present estimates from my Department suggest that in the region of €2 million in EU funds were unused, giving a drawdown rate of 95%. This would be a very successful outcome for any EU funding programme and will compare very favourably with other Member States. It is worth noting that all of the funds available were awarded to investment projects, but inevitably some do not proceed, while others do not avail of the full amount of funds offered to them. When this happens in the final year of the Programme there is no scope to re-allocate funds to other projects.