Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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366. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the EU funds his Department accesses; the plans he is putting in place to access these funds to a greater degree in view of Brexit; if he will outline initiatives he is pursuing to establish access to new funds in view of the challenge of Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8811/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Public Expenditure & Reform I have overall responsibility for EU Cohesion Policy and the European Structural & Investment (ESI) Funds.  Within the overall heading of the ESI Funds, I am responsible for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) while the Minister for Education and Skills is responsible for the European Social Fund and the Minister for Agriculture, Food & the Marine is responsible for the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

Under the ERDF Ireland has two regional operational programmes that are managed by the Southern Regional Assembly and the Northern and Western Regional Assembly.  Also under the ERDF Ireland receives funding for the PEACE Programme and the Ireland/Northern Ireland/Scotland INTERREG Programme, both of which are managed by the Special EU Programmes Body, as well as the Ireland/Wales INTERREG Programme and a number of smaller transnational programmes.

As part of my Department's contingency planning for Brexit, the risks to the cross-border programmes, which are 85% funded by the EU, were identified.  Accordingly I am pleased that, following intensive discussions with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland and the Welsh European Funding Office, agreement was reached at the end of October on a safeguard clause that has enabled funding agreements to be put in place and Letters of Offer to issue to programme beneficiaries for both PEACE and the two INTERREG Programmes. 

Now that the short term objective has been achieved, the medium term objective is to ensure the full and successful implementation of the programmes to 2020, during a period in which the UK may leave the EU and the UK allocation of ERDF funding may no longer be available.  The long term objective is to secure agreement to successor programmes post-2020 in the context of not just Brexit but also the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

The overall funding envelope for the ERDF for the period 2014-2020 is fixed as part of the current MFF. Nevertheless, my Department will explore all opportunities to maximise available EU funding and to ensure that it is deployed to address the challenges posed by Brexit.