Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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230. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the amount of pre-financing by programme his Department has applied for with regard to the current phase of EU funding programmes; the amount that is likely to be reimbursed to the European Commission; the reasons this money will be reimbursed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20577/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with the European Social Fund Regulations, following the adoption in 2015 of the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020, initial pre-financing of 3.5% and 30% in the case of the Youth Employment Initiative priority axis, together with annual pre-financing of 2% for 2016 resulted in a total of €51.8m receipts. €31.4m of this amount, which is currently held in a suspense account, is likely to be reimbursed to the Commission. €19.8m of this amount is in respect of the YEI initiative and arises as an interim YEI payment application was not submitted by 23rd May 2016. The other €11.6m is in respect of the general 2% annual ESF pre-financing received for 2016 and will be reimbursed as a payment application under the ESF will not be made in 2016.

Work on the designation of the relevant ESF authorities, including the provision of a national computerised accounting and information system for EU funds to meet the 2014-2020 functionality requirements is continuing. However, it should be noted that the reimbursement of this pre-financing will not result in any loss of EU monies to the Exchequer, as the full allocations will still be available for drawdown and it is expected that the funding will be fully drawn down during the programming period. Furthermore, as the activities concerned are fully funded up-front by the Exchequer there is no resulting reduction or delay in the funding available to those activities.

Turning to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), my Department has successfully applied for co-financing support under the 2014-20 funding round for 3 programmes, in respect of which the Commission has forwarded financial contributions of €4.4m. The Andersen Ireland EGF programme ended in May and my Department will submit a final report and expenditure statement to the European Commission by mid-November. The Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland EGF programme ends in September while the PWA International EGF programme runs to next June. Where the actual expenditure on a programme falls short of the programme allocation, the co-financing received is reimbursed proportionally. It is difficult to accurately forecast final expenditure on EGF programmes as public beneficiary bodies generally fund the cost of EGF measures from national budgets and subsequently submit expenditure declarations/claims during and more often following completion of the programmes. However, the average expenditure across the 7 previous Irish EGF programmes was 60% of the programme allocations. Assuming a similar outcome for these programmes, a 40% reimbursement rate would result in €1.76m being reimbursed.