Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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294. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to publish the review conducted in 2019 of the European regional development funding in Ireland known as the Crowe review; his position on the management of the funds as to whether he plans centralising European regional development funds in a Department or agency and removing the management authority role from the regional assemblies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23338/20]

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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308. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will publish his Department's review of European regional development funding, that is, the Crowe report; the position on the management of these funds; his plans to remove the administration of the fund from the regional assemblies and centralise it in a Department or agency; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24129/20]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 294 and 308 together.

A decision will be made shortly regarding the role of Managing Authorities for the 2021 - 2027 European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) Operational Programmes. The Crowe Review is an input to that decision.  In the meantime, the three Regional Assemblies are playing a very active role in the process of programming for the next round of ERDF, in conjunction and cooperation with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.They are also represented on the Partnership Process Steering Group, which guides and advises on the programming of all of the European Structural Investment Fund (ESIF) programmes, through the development process of the Partnership Agreement for the period 2021 – 2027.

The Steering Group oversaw the development of a Needs Analysis by Indecon Economic Consultants, which specifically looked at regional development needs.

The Regional Assemblies are also part of a working group which launched a consultation process to inform the selection of priorities for the use of EU cohesion funding for the next period.  As part of this consultation a webinar was held on the 28^thof July, breakout sessions were organised on a regional basis, and this included a focus on the main priorities of the individual Regional Spatial and Economic Strategies. The working group is currently preparing a report, the primary purpose of which is to present the findings and analysis from the public consultation submissions, including the qualitative messages from the national workshop event conducted on 28^thJuly. This report, along with the Needs Analysis, adopted by the PPSG in July, will inform the ERDF programming for 2021 – 2027.