Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 53: To ask the Minister for Finance if he or his officials were involved in discussions at EU level regarding the pilot scheme on project bonds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26439/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Europe 2020 Project Bonds Initiative has been proposed by the EU Commission to help promoters of infrastructure projects attract additional private sources of finance from institutional investors. Under the initiative, the European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide credit enhancement to project companies issuing bonds to finance infrastructure projects. This will improve the rating of the senior debt of the project companies and allow them to raise funds more easily. The intention is to increase the availability of debt financing for large-scale infrastructure projects in the areas of transport, energy and broadband.

I understand that it is intended to launch a pilot phase for the Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative once the European Parliament and the Council have approved the legislative proposal amending the Trans-European Networks (TEN) Regulation and the Competitiveness and Innovation framework Programme (CIP) Decision and redeployed existing budget allocations of these programmes and subject to the agreement of the EIB's governing bodies.