Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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105. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department has drawn down the Youth Guarantee EU funding for 2016; if not, the reason this money has yet to be drawn down; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29872/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) is a European Union financial package to co-finance measures implemented by Member States to tackle youth unemployment and to assist the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. The YEI is integrated into European Social Fund programming and is being delivered in Ireland as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020. The YEI funding allocation for Ireland is €68m and is matched by equal amounts from Ireland’s ESF allocation and from the Exchequer, giving a total of €204m.  

Seven specific actions are being funded under the YEI, namely -

- the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance,

- JobBridge,

- JobsPlus Incentive Scheme,

- Tús,

- Youthreach,

- the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP), and

- Momentum.  

All of these activities are fully funded up-front by the Exchequer and are now well underway. 

While it is normal practice, under the relevant ESF Regulations, for the EU to provide initial pre-financing of the order of 2.5% to 3.5% for Member States' Operational Programmes, in the case of YEI the initial pre-financing rate was increased to 30% of the YEI allocation in response to the urgent need to address youth unemployment. However, in an attempt to ensure that the funding was used for the immediate implementation of the YEI, the Regulation provided that if a Member State did not submit an interim payment application by 23 May 2016 for at least 50% of the additional pre-financing amount, the Member State must reimburse the Commission the total YEI pre-financing contribution. 

As 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, Ireland did not comply with the requirement to submit an interim YEI payment application by the due date. Accordingly, we were required to reimburse to the Commission €19.8 million pre-financing for YEI. However, it is very important to note that the activities are fully funded up-front by the Exchequer, so there is no resulting reduction or delay in the funding available to those activities. 

Neither will the reimbursement result in any loss of EU monies to the Exchequer, as the full YEI allocation of €68m to Ireland will still be available for drawdown before year-end 2018, and it is expected that this funding will be fully drawn down.