Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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23. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will provide a list of Irish projects which the Government has identified for drawing down funding from the European Commission’s €315 billion European Fund for Strategic Investment, which fund promotes job creation, long-term growth and competitiveness; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12090/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The informal meeting of Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) in Milan last September noted that a lack of capital investment from both the public and private sectors was leading to a lag in growth in the EU's economy. Ecofin then agreed the establishment of a Special Task Force to develop an EU project pipeline of viable investments of European significance. As part of this process Ireland submitted a list of projects valued at approximately €23 billion towards identifying an EU wide project pipeline.

The report on investment in the EU prepared by the Task Force, which includes the proposals submitted by the Department of Finance, can be found on the following website -

The Irish Project list represented a compilation of potential investment projects as put forward by the Departments with policy responsibility for the relevant sectors, but without any overall assessment or prioritisation of the projects from a national perspective. 

Following the final report of the Task Force which had helped to identify the scale of the investment need the Commission launched its €315 billion investment plan in November 2014.

As the Deputy may be aware the legislative proposal for the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) is still being negotiated under the Latvian Presidency. Council reached an agreement on the legislative text at the March meeting of Ecofin and now the Parliament is discussing its position on the text with a large number of amendments proposed. Once the EFSI becomes operational the EIB will determine whether any given project meets the criteria for support by EFSI. It is important to underline that the EFSI will operate as an investor supporting projects through direct investment or by advancing guarantees and not through grants.

To establish the European Fund for Strategic Investments ("EFSI"), a guarantee of €16 billion will be created under the EU budget with an additional commitment of €5 billion from the EIB.  This risk capital is expected to mobilise an additional €315 billion of finance.  My Department, in conjunction with other Departments and agencies, is evaluating the type of project risk profile that is expected to be suitable for EFSI funding. This is expected to involve higher risk return profile than existing EIB and EU instruments.