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

The partnership agreement sets out Ireland's investment strategy for its cohesion policy funds. Ireland will receive €1.4 billion in cohesion policy funding for the period 2021 to 2027. When this funding is co-financed at national level, it will mean cohesion policy programmes will add a total value of almost €3.5 billion to the economy. Using these funds, implementation of the partnership agreement will strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion and further reduce disparities between different regions, including in the northern and western region.

In July, I secured Cabinet approval to formally submit a draft of Ireland's partnership agreement to the European Commission for its consideration. The Commission adopted the partnership agreement without change on 16 September, and I launched it with the Commissioner responsible for regional affairs, Ms Elisa Ferreira, on 20 September in Dublin. The Commissioner was in Ireland in September as part of a two-day visit to see European Regional Development Fund, ERDF, and European Social Fund projects and to engage with project participants. At a meeting of the Cabinet in July, I undertook to return to the Government with the final text of the partnership agreement. My officials are preparing this memorandum at present. I will bring the partnership agreement to the Government in the coming weeks. I intend to publish the document on my Department's website as soon as the Government has approved it.

Across the EU, the European Commission classifies regions within the Union as being less developed, in transition or more developed, based on their GDP per head of population relative to the EU average. As the Deputy has identified, the Commission recently reclassified the northern and western region from a more developed region to a region in transition on the basis that its GDP is between 75% and 100% of the EU 27 average. The other two regions in Ireland are classified as more developed as their GDP is above 100% of the EU average. Under the cohesion policy rules, regions classified as regions in transition, like the northern and western region, benefit from a higher co-financing rate, whereby the EU provides 60% of the funding for programmes, as opposed to 40% in the more developed regions.

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