Declan Breathnach (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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279. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the projected European Union funding specifically for North-South projects; the amount of co-funding provided by the Irish State to these projects in each of the years from 2016 to 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23293/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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PEACE Programme

As the Deputy will be aware, the Irish Government was successful in securing €150 million of EU funding (constant prices) towards a new cross-border PEACE Programme for the period 2014-2020.  The UK Government subsequently decided to allocate an additional €50 million to the Programme from its overall EU allocation under the European Regional Development Fund.

The PEACE Programme has a total value of €270 million (current prices), with 85% being recouped from the European Regional Development Fund and the balance funded by the two Member States:

Calls for applications have opened for four elements of the Programme in the areas of Shared Education, Building Positive Relations, Local Authority Actions Plans, and Shared Spaces, and the assessment of proposed projects is underway.  Until such time as this process is completed, however, additional detail on the funding categorisation by year is not available.  Further project calls are planned for 2016 and 2017.

Interreg Programme

The INTERREG Programme has a total value of €283 million (current prices), with 85% being recouped from the European Regional Development Fund and the balance funded by the two Member States:

The INTERREG Programme has four key priority areas for investment, namely research and innovation, the environment, sustainable transport, and health.  Funding calls have issued for all priorities and the assessment of proposed projects is underway.  As with the PEACE Programme, until this process is completed it is not possible to provide detail on the funding categorisation by year.  Further project calls will issue during 2016 and 2017.