Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

As the Minister knows, the PEACEPLUS programme is a successor programme to INTERREG and the various PEACE programmes. As we have discussed often in this House, they have been particularly important in bringing new facilities and amenities to and stimulating economic development in areas like my own along the Border, which suffered so much due to the Troubles over a protracted period of time. The PEACE programme goes back to the mid-1990s and I am glad that the Irish and British Governments, the European Union and the Northern Ireland Executive put together a major funding programme of €1.14 billion. I know the projects that have been approved for funding are very good projects that will add considerably to communities both near and far.

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