Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Smith for raising this issue and for his ongoing representations in support of the development of the PEACE PLUS programme. My Department has responsibility, on the part of the Irish Government, for the roll-out of this programme, working with the Northern Executive and, of course, the UK Government and the special EU programmes body. We have a very exciting programme at a value of €1.145 billion that has been approved by the Irish Government. The next step is for the draft programme to be submitted to the European Commission for its consideration and final approval, and I expect a formal launch will likely take place in the spring of 2022. The funding will start to flow under the various programmes under PEACE PLUS over the course of 2022. I thank the Deputy again for his support.

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