Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the applications for Ten-T funding he has made or plans to make, and for which projects. [44832/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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While the Government has not applied nor have we plans to apply for funding under the current TENT Programme (2007-2013), a number of state agencies have sought and been approved funding since the programme commenced in 2007. All applications are routed through a Government Department to ensure policy fit and as a legal requirement for a TENT project on the territory of a Member State.

The largest TENT project is the DART Underground / Dublin Interconnector which was identified as part of one of the 30 Priority Projects agreed across the EU at the outset of the current TENT programme.  EU funding of €10m was approved towards the design and development process, geotechnical investigations and various surveys and studies. Most of the work for which funding was granted has already been completed. €5.5m has been claimed to date.

A list of other TENT projects with Irish consortia members / participants is set out hereunder.  More details on the individual projects is available on the Ten-t agency website (web address: http://tentea.ec.europa.eu/en/ten-t_projects/ten-t_projects_by_country/ireland/  ).

According to Commission published figures, the drawdown for Ireland under the Trans European Networks heading (which also includes Trans European Energy projects) of the EU budget from 2007 to 2010 was €22.8m. 

The most recent success is the ESB who recently secured over €2m for an e-Cars study on the island of Ireland.

As for future plans, my Department and agencies continue to monitor calls for proposals under the TENT programme.  Commission officials recently met with the National Transport Authority to discuss how best to access funding from TENT in light of the constraints on Exchequer investment in transport. Based on what emerges from the next Annual and Multi-annual call for proposals, due later in the year, I would hope to see some new applications coming forward.