Mr. Hugo Sobral:

I thank Deputy Howlin and I salute him. Even though I did not have a chance to work personally with him his name is still known precisely because of his previous responsibilities of being in charge of cohesion policy in Ireland. I will certainly pass on his regards to Commissioner Ferreira. She also has very fond memories of her time in the environment Council. I agree with the Deputy's initial comments on the importance of cohesion for the European project. Cohesion tends to be looked on as an old policy and a policy that needs to be replaced with other priorities but it is the vehicle through which we implement our priorities in a way that reinforces economic, social and territorial cohesion. Deputy Howlin has given the good example of Brexit.

We know that the cost of living in certain territories comes back to haunt us at the ballot box. We need, therefore, to do more to avoid internal fractures but also to communicate better, as the Deputy said, because sometimes it is not known that a certain type of support comes from the European Union. This visibility of the support is very important.

On the Deputy's specific questions on the Brexit adjustment reserve, the reserve was conceived as a special instrument precisely to cater for the impact of Brexit. A high degree of flexibility is given to member states. In contrast with other programmes, instruments and inclusion policies, there is no need to programme and plan the investments. We are not asking member states to send us a list of what they want to do. We will be giving 80% pre-financing. Of the €5 billion, 80% of it will be pre-financed and it will be given it to member states in three trenches. As the Deputy said, Ireland will receive the first one this year.

Member states then need to make their investments and implement their measures. We believe they are best placed to assess which sectors, regions and communities should be supported and which are most affected by Brexit. We give them a certain flexibility to make these decisions. It is important, however, and I will underline this, that member states will then have to report in 2024 on what they have done and how they have used these investments. It is an ex postrather than an ex anteassessment. There needs to be a clear link with Brexit. A fundamental condition for the use of the funds from the reserve is the link with the effect of Brexit. This needs to be proven in the declarations of expenditure we will receive from member states.

In the case of ports and connectivity, we know that will be an area where Ireland will be using the Brexit adjustment reserve. It is important to also make this link with the impact of Brexit and perhaps try to justify this investment. For instance, how much of the port investment is related precisely to losses provoked by Brexit? This is what we will be looking at and probably what the European Court of Auditors will be looking at afterwards. As I said, however, there is wide discretion for member states to use the funds for business support, retraining and reskilling, connectivity, reintegrating citizens who may be coming back from the UK because of Brexit or border measures. A wide range of measures can be financed. The only important requirement is to prove the link with the impact of Brexit.

On PEACE PLUS, I assure the Deputy that this is probably the only bright spot in our current co-operation with the UK on post-Brexit matters. The UK has decided to discontinue its participation in all programmes, including INTERREG programmes, with the exception of PEACE PLUS. It said it is interested in continuing with this programme and has already committed to the same level of financing as in the previous period, meaning PEACE PLUS will have approximately €1 billion. The UK will finance two thirds of the programme and the UK and Ireland will finance the remaining third. We are, therefore, seeing the same level of commitment to financing. I can also assure the Deputy on the managing authority. The special EU programmes body, SEUPB, will remain the authority running and managing this programme. We are very happy with the way it works and the way it has been preparing the future edition.