Mr. Terence Connolly:

On behalf of the three regional assemblies in Ireland, the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, NWRA, the Southern Regional Assembly, SRA, and the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, EMRA, I thank the Cathaoirleach and committee members for inviting us to this morning’s hearing. I am from the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly. I am joined here today by Ms Rose Power, programme executive from the Southern Regional Assembly, and Dr. Travis O’Doherty, national contact point for the Northern Periphery and Arctic and the Atlantic Area INTERREG programmes. Dr. O'Doherty comes from the Northern and Western Regional Assembly. I am also joined by Dr. Karl Murphy who is the national contact point for the URBACT programme, and for the European Urban Initiative. Dr. Murphy is also from the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly.

The three regional assemblies play a crucial role in the administration, management, promotion and certification of EU funds, ensuring compliance with all national and EU regulations, achieving programme objectives, and helping the promotion of sustainable regional development. In the 2001 to 2027 period, the NWRA and SRA are acting as the managing authorities for the two European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, programmes, while EMRA is acting as managing authority for the Just Transition Fund. The regional assemblies also act as national contact points for several European Territorial Cooperation, ETC, or INTERREG programmes. These programmes are in the family of cohesion funding and are designed to promote co-operation between regions and countries to help their economic and social development. The assemblies also act as first level control or auditor for Irish partners looking to draw down funds from EU programmes.

The Irish Regions European Office, IREO, managed by the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly, is based in Brussels and represents the three regional assemblies and the 31 local authorities of Ireland. The IREO focus is on bringing the EU closer to the wider local government sector and vice versa. The IREO has four main functions, by which it seeks to provide timely and relevant guidance and advisory services to stakeholders to inform and facilitate their individual and collective understanding of, and engagement in, European activities. These are policy monitoring, providing the secretariat to the Irish delegation to the European Committee of the Regions, highlighting funding opportunities and networking.

Regarding the INTERREG Northern Periphery and Arctic, NPA, programme, the NPA area consists of regions inside the EU member states of Finland, Ireland and Sweden as well as regions outside the EU such as Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Sparse population and extreme peripherality from the economic centres of the EU are defining characteristics of the territory. From 2021 to 2027, the programme will allocate nearly €47 million to projects. It is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, ERDF. Grant funding rates of up to 65% are available.

The programme has three priorities: strengthening the innovation capacity for communities, climate change adaptation, and strengthening the organisational capacity. Projects typically have a transnational partnership of between five and seven partners, an average budget size of €1.5 million and an implementation period of three years. A good example of an NPA project is Blue Circular Nets, CIRCNETS. It supports the collection, treatment and recycling of end-of-life fishing gear to ensure nets are disposed of appropriately and do not end up in seas, degrading the marine environment. The total budget is €1.5 million. Sweden is a pioneer in this field and is sharing best practices and policies with NPA regions. The Irish partners are the Western Development Commission and the University of Galway.

The INTERREG Atlantic Area, AA, programme is an EU transnational co-operation programme funded by the ERDF. The total programme budget is €113 million euro. The programme covers the western part of the Atlantic Ocean and includes all regions of Ireland and Portugal as well as several French and Spanish coastal regions. There are four programme priorities, ranging from innovation and competitiveness to the environment, tourism and co-operation. The total project amounts should be in a range between €1 million and €3.5 million and will be co-financed up to 75%. A good example of an AA project is TrailGazersBID. This project explores new technologies such as GoPro cameras, drones and applications to showcase trails to Atlantic tourist visitors. The lead partner is Donegal County Council. The project has ten partners, including Sligo County Council, and has a total budget of €2.58 million.

URBACT is an EU-funded programme with up to 70% ERDF funding available. In Ireland, its target audience principally comprises the 31 local authorities throughout the State. URBACT's focus is on the exchange of learning and best practice in a transnational context, namely, between European towns and cities joined together by a common urban challenge. Towns and cities work jointly to form an integrated action plan during a 31-month period. Projects typically have a value of approximately €850,000. Following the most recent call for this network type, we have seven Irish projects in place. The URBACT local group helps to ensure the projects are participatory and includes the most relevant local stakeholders.

The European Urban Initiative, EUI, seeks to consolidate what has gone before it in the realm of sustainable urban development and to work alongside the URBACT programme and the overarching urban agenda for the EU to bring Europe closer to the citizen. It also helps regarding member states' commitment to integrated territorial development and fostering sustainable urban development. Its three main strands of assistance are innovative actions, capacity building and a knowledge environment. For innovative actions, there is up to €5 million available per project with a co-financing rate of up to 80%.

The INTERREG Europe programme aims to improve regional development policy instruments through the exchange of experience, innovative approaches and capacity building across all 27 member states, plus Norway and Switzerland. The objective of INTERREG Europe is to enable public authorities and other relevant organisations to actively learn from the experience of other regions in Europe to improve local and regional policies.

Projects can have a wide scope under six themes: a smarter Europe, a greener Europe, a more social Europe, a more connected Europe, a Europe closer to citizens, and better regional governance. Currently, in excess of €379 million is available and the co-financing rate is 80%, which is reduced to 70% for private non-profit bodies. A good exemplar of an INTERREG Europe project was INTENSIFY.INTENSIFY's objective was to reduce carbon emissions through intense community engagement and had a budget of €1.9 million. This project had eight partners, including Cork City Council, and led to the establishment of the home energy upgrade office located on Grand Parade in Cork city. The office offers advice and information to citizens to reduce energy consumption in their homes and assists with energy efficiency grant applications and home retrofits.

The INTERREG North-West Europe programme focuses on projects involving at least three different countries in the north west of Europe. Projects can have a wide scope, covering five key pillars: climate and environment; energy transition; circular economy; innovation and resilience; and inclusive society.