Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the change in the intervention rate as it will assist organisations seeking to make applications in the changed circumstances prevailing in this State and the Six Counties as they try to secure matching or alternative funding.

The total moneys available under the PEACE IV programme amount to approximately €200 million. Our guests did not indicate what funding will be available under the INTERREG programme. While I accept it is probably early days, is there a figure available for funding under the INTERREG programme? A sum of €200 million may seem to be substantial but the annual allocation will be less than €30 million as the programme is to run for seven years. We must understand that while the funding may have a positive effect, it will not address all issues or solve all problems.

The funding will be used to meet "the specific and complex challenges of social inclusion, youth work, education and capacity building". This is a broad and ambitious range of areas. While €200 million may be a drop in the ocean, I hope that, combined with matching funding, it will have the intended effect.

I raise an issue that ties in with the proposed Narrow Water Bridge project and perhaps other similar projects of which I am not aware. If money is not drawn down and expended by the end of the programme, will it roll over into a subsequent programme or will it be reallocated to projects where there is a shortfall in funding? If, for instance, the Narrow Water Bridge project is delayed, which no one wants, can the €17 million committed for the project be reallocated to other projects or will it be sucked back into the European Union and take years to extract through a complicated bureaucratic process?