Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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52. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the date for the commencement of the first tranche of payments to projects approved to date under the Just Transition Fund. [10974/21]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Just Transition Fund is a key pillar of the Government’s just transition plan for the Midlands. The Fund is supporting projects to generate sustainable employment in the region, and communities to transition to a low carbon economy.  The objective is to fund innovative projects that contribute to the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the Midlands region and which have employment and enterprise potential. A first tranche of payments has already been made by my Department to 'strand 1' projects with a value of up to €100,000 per project. A total of €140,097 was paid to seven of these projects in September 2020 as pre-funding to enable the commencement of projects, where required.  My Department expects to receive additional payment requests from strand 1 projects in the coming months on the basis of the costs they have incurred in project delivery and having met agreed project milestones.  The timing of claim requests depends on the specific project.

A further 47 projects have received provisional offers of funding under 'strand 2' in November 2020.  Projects which do not fall within state aid rules are currently undergoing final verification and my Department expects to issue final letters of offer and funding agreements shortly to projects that meet the verification requirements. Projects subject to state aid must assess and submit to my Department their eligible project costs to ensure compliance with state aid rules and this process is ongoing. This assessment will determine the amount of funding that can be granted by the Department to each project. Once this process is complete, these projects will move forward to the verification stage as outlined above. 

Once projects have signed a funding agreement with my Department, they will be able to commence project delivery, can apply for project pre-funding, and can subsequently make payment requests on the basis of costs incurred and agreed project milestones.