Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a fair question. My understanding is that the actual allocation of this money, once it has been confirmed, will be managed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, which the Deputy will understand only too well, given his time there. I suspect the Department of Finance will be involved in the discussion as well, with other Departments like the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, and other sectors will then make their contributions. I hope we will also have an Oireachtas committee system that can contribute to the discussion to make sure that we get this right.

My job, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, was to try to do everything we could to maximise the amount of money that Ireland could access through this fund.

Once that money is approved it will be a collective Government responsibility, managed by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I expect there will be a lot of consultation with stakeholders. We want to do it as quickly as we can so that we can respond to areas of disruption quickly rather than this leaking into next year.

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