Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs
European Court of Auditors: Discussion
Mr. Tony Murphy:
I will first answer the question on migration. We have an opportunity to look at the situation in a few different member states and highlight aspects that are good or bad. We are in a good position in that regard. We plan to do a special report on integration of migrants in the EU but that will take some time. We will look at that as a topic, not the financial aspects but more in terms of what I was talking about before. We will consider whether the projects funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund are efficient and are achieving the intended integration as an output.
Regarding roads, the issue is that it is a matter of national competence as to which projects are delivered. I referred earlier to the golden era in which we were getting a lot of money, when we were not net contributors and we were catching up through cohesion funding. That was when a lot of the roads were built. As I said, the funding from that source is now very limited, at €188 million. There is not a big amount of funding available. I do not know whether the project to which the Chairman referred was considered as a potential project under the Recovery and Resilience Facility plan. There are a number of options. One of the projects, for instance, relates to a rail service in Cork. Some infrastructural projects were included as specific investment projects under the national recovery and resilience plan, RRRP, for Ireland. I hope the Chairman gets that road and that we get to audit the EU contribution to the project.
No comments