Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We received the first tranche of funding just before Christmas. As we indicated in the budget, the intention would be to allocate about half of the overall funding in 2022 and the remaining half next year. There is a reference period and the funding has to be spent before the end of next year. Again, because it is EU funding, there are very clear criteria. There must be a direct, explicit link to the impact of Brexitvis-à-visthe spending decisions. We have already made a number of allocations in the fisheries area, for example. We can include expenditure that goes back to the beginning of 2020 because the reckonable or reference period runs from January 2020 to the end of 2023. In so far as possible, however, we want to use the money on new expenditure and new projects to support the sectors that are most affected by Brexit. No doubt Deputy Howlin is interested in and aware of the works that are planned at Rosslare Europort.