Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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562. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the breakdown of funds received by his Department or channelled through his Department from EU funds in 2017; and the programmes these funds supported. [9578/19]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is the EU's funding instrument for the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). Funding under the CEF is delivered in the form of grants allocated following competitive calls for proposals. Irish beneficiaries participate in 23 projects and receive €118.6 million in CEF Transport co-funding, with total investments in these projects of €565.9 million. The EU funding provided is not readily available by year.

These include successful applications for the deployment of Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) and road transport projects with other Member States, which includes studies on the harmonisation of interoperable intelligent transport systems (ITS) and cooperative Intelligent transport systems (C-ITS).

Details of all of Ireland’s successful projects are available on the INEA website at the following weblink:

In addition, my Department applied for and was successful in obtaining a grant from the EU, via the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) for the period 1 January 2017 up to 31 December 2019. The grant is for a total of €110,400, €8,146 of which was spent in 2017. The purpose of the grant is to enhance Ireland's participation in activities relating to the TEN-T Core Network Corridors.

My Department also provided funding of €14,339.38 in 2017 for the INTERREG VA Programme, which is run by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) for cross-border projects, in respect of the Carlingford Lough and Ulster Canal Greenways. Up to 85% of the Programme is subsequently reimbursed from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The division and allocation of this fund is the responsibility of the SEUPB.

My Department encourages operators in our transport sectors to explore all avenues of finance available for capital investment projects including domestic banks, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), as well as the European Investment Bank (EIB), Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) in order to secure the most suitable funding instrument at the most favourable commercial rates. In many cases, a mix of funding instruments is used for capital projects by ports, roads aviation and public transport sectors.