Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 31 January 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Scrutiny of EU Legislative Proposals

12:15 pm

Ms Niamh Campbell:

That is a valid question because there is not going to be an increase in the MFF. In fact, it is clear now that the MFF will be smaller than that proposed by the EU Commission. That is the reality of the situation. At the same time, the Commission's proposal regarding the MFF has focused on areas for supporting growth and competitiveness. There is a big increase in the budget for research and infrastructure. The overall implementation of the MFF within the cohesion area will be focused on growth and employment related measures. It will be a smaller amount of money but there are more efforts to target it on growth-producing and employment-based measures.