Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Taoiseach the potential investment projects his Department put forward to the Department of Finance task force report for the European Fund for Strategic Investments. [4872/17]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the agreement reached by Finance Ministers in December on the legislative proposal to strengthen and extend the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) and hope that negotiations with the European Parliament can be concluded quickly. The new EIB (European Investment Bank) office I opened in Dublin in December should also provide further complementary support for project development in Ireland, building from the experience it has gained in tackling investment bottlenecks across Europe.

My Department will continue to support effective Irish engagement with EFSI, including through the work of relevant Cabinet Committees. By increasing EIB risk-taking capacity, we should expect to see EFSI enabling a stronger EIB footprint in areas such as direct lending to mid-size corporates, sharing of credit risk on SME innovation finance, and infrastructure projects that do not benefit from a sovereign guarantee.

However my Department was not directly involved in the work of the EU Task Force on Investment that reported in December 2014 as part of EFSI preparations. The Irish contribution to the Task Force was coordinated by the Department of Finance, working closely with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and other Government Departments having policy responsibility for specific investment projects.