Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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101. To ask the Minister for Finance if Ireland plans to apply for loans under the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9304/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) is the key element of the Next Generation EU / Recovery Plan Package of €750bn (€360bn in loans and €390bn in grants) agreed by the European Council in July 2020. The instrument accounts for the vast majority of that €750bn package (€672.5bn, made up of €360bn loans and €312.5bn in grants). It is a large scale financial support to public investments and reforms which aims to assist Member States to address the impact of Covid-19 and become more resilient for the future.

Ireland’s plan is being prepared by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform working with the Department of the Taoiseach, the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, and my own Department. Work is ongoing in relation to the broad areas we are seeking funding for and the analysis is underway on the investment and reform projects which could be supported by the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Our plan will set out an ambitious but targeted programme of impactful, mature investments and reforms up to 2026.

The Recovery and Resilience Facility makes provision for lending by the European Commission to Member States. An application for a loan must be received by the European Commission before the end of 2023. No details of the loan agreements are available at this stage.

Consideration of whether Ireland should seek to avail of the loan element will take place once the Government consider the package of investment and reform projects and when the relevant information on loans becomes available from the European Commission. The Government will make a decision on a loan application at the appropriate time.