Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will report on the recent cutting of the EU transport networks budget; if he will outline the impact on transport projects here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8392/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The European Council agreed an allocation of €29.3bn for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), of which €23bn is ear-marked for transport including a sum of €10bn for transport investment in Cohesion Member States. Ireland will be eligible to apply for funding under the CEF once the Regulation, which covers the period 2014-2020, has been agreed. While the Commission had originally proposed a larger budget for the CEF, the €13bn for non-Cohesion transport investment still represents a substantial increase on the €8bn available under the equivalent TEN-T programme in the current Financial Perspectives. In that context, I am hopeful that transport projects that are deemed eligible to apply for funding will benefit from this new funding instrument in due course.