Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 16 February 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 30 - Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Chapter 7 - EU Refunds and Levies in the Agriculture Sector

9:00 am

Mr. Aidan O'Driscoll:

I know, but I am explaining that to date, we have drawn down 33% of the EU funding for the rural development programme. That is the EU fund drawdown. The total value of the rural development programme is €4 billion, including EU and non-EU. We believe, on our current projections, that we will have spent that in 2020 or thereabouts. One can go on spending for three years after 2020. We think we will have fully drawn it down by that date. The reason I draw attention to the EU drawdown is that it is the only comparison we can do and it is with our own previous performance and with other member states. We have the second highest drawdown in the entire EU at 33%. I think the Finns are at 36%. The average drawdown is 14%, but that is from memory.