John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 396: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the names of the programmes and schemes operated by his Department which were or continue to be funded in full or in part by the European Union; the amount of funding in each case since Ireland joined the EU; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3764/08]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There are no programmes currently being operated by my Department that are funded, either wholly or partly, by the European Union. In the time available, I am only in a position to provide information in regard to EU support for programmes operated by my Department in the past ten years.

My Department had responsibility for two measures under the EU Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation (Peace I) which was targeted at Northern Ireland and the six border counties and ran from 1995 to end-December 2001, although funding continued to be drawn down by approved projects until the end of 2005. The first of these two measures was entitled Measure 3.3 on Cross-Border co-operation between Public Bodies and had an expenditure of approximately €11 million. The second was entitled Measure 3.1 on Cross-Border Business and Cultural Linkages and had an expenditure of €12 million. The latter measure was implemented by an intermediary agency, Co-Operation Ireland, under the supervision of this Department.