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

Question 221: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance 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. [3763/08]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is responsible for, amongst other things, overall policy in relation to Ireland's EU Structural and Cohesion Funds. It also plays a central role in the development and monitoring of the programmes/projects through which the Funds are drawn down. Ireland has qualified for Structural Funds since we joined the EU in 1973 and for the Cohesion Fund from 1993 when it was established. However, due to the economic progress the country has made, Ireland no longer qualifies for Cohesion Funding since 2004.

Ireland has been allocated some €901m in EU Structural Funds over the period 2007-2013. The European Commission has approved Ireland's National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) which I launched last December. The NSRF sets out the strategic orientation of the funding for the period. The strategy will be implemented through three operational programmes, one national European Social Fund (ESF) programme and two regional European Regional Development Programme (ERDF) programmes as set out in table 1 below.

In the 2000-2006 round of Funding, the funds were implemented under the National Development Plan/Community Support Framework (NDP/CSF) 2000-2006 through seven operational programmes as set out in table 2 below.

For the 1994-1999 round of funding, there were nine operational programmes and for the 1989-1993 round there were twelve operational programmes. Prior to 1989, funding was managed on a project basis with the relevant Government Department/Agency responsible for project implementation.

As can be seen in table 2 above, my Department is directly responsible for implementing the Technical Assistance Operational Programmes. Table 3 sets out details of receipts received.

Details of receipts Ireland has received from the EU Budget under the various funds, including the Structural and Cohesion Funds, since we joined the EU in 1973 can be obtained from the publication "Budgetary and Economic Statistics" published by my Department last year. Table 11 of this publication refers to the breakdown of receipts. The document can be obtained from the following website address: http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/other/ BES2007V2.pdf