Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 83: To ask the Minister for Finance the percentage of funds for regional development aid that is from national Exchequer funds and the percentage that is from European or other funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12665/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment Objective, Ireland has been allocated €750 million of EU Structural Funds for the period 2007-13: of this €458 million has been allocated to the Border, Midland and Western (BMW) Region and €292 million to the Southern and Eastern (S&E) Region.

Ireland's National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), which sets out the strategy for using these Funds, was approved by the European Commission in July 2007. The BMW and S&E European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and National European Social Fund (ESF) co-funded Operational Programmes implementing the strategic priorities in the NSRF were approved by the European Commission on 16th October and 6th November 2007 respectively.

A further €151m has been allocated under ERDF for smaller Territorial Co-operation Operational Programmes, e.g. the INTERREG Programmes for Ireland/Northern Ireland/Scotland and Ireland/Wales and the PEACE III Programme.

The Structural Funds programmes are co-financed both from the EU Funding and nationally allocated Exchequer funds. The EU Regulation (EC No 1083/2006 of 11 July 2006) sets out the general provisions for the ERDF, ESF and the Cohesion Fund. This states that the contribution from the funds at the level of operational programmes under the Regional Competitiveness and Employment and Territorial Co-operation objectives shall be subject to ceilings of 50% and 75% respectively.

Following the negotiations with the Commission on the content of the BMW and S&E ERDF Operational Programmes, the Commission decisions dated the 16th October 2007 approving the Operational Programmes set the maximum co-financing rates for each of them at 40%; that is the Exchequer will fund 60% and the EU ERDF contribution will be 40%. The Commission decisions in relation to the INTERREG and PEACE III Operational Programmes set the maximum co-financing rates at 75% and 67.54% respectively.