Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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731. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department has received any of the State allocation of the EU React funding; if so, the amount; and the areas of expenditure under the responsibilities of his Department it was spent on. [21335/21]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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REACT EU is a €47.5bn initiative under the European Recovery Instrument to respond to the impact of COVID-19 and to prepare a green, digital and resilient recovery of the economy. The funding allocations are allocated in two tranches, for 2021 (80%) and 2022 (20%).  The allocations will  top-up existing 2014-2020 cohesion policy programmes and Member States can allocate the resources across their Operational Programmes under the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF),  the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) or the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI).

Ireland’s allocation for 2021 is €83.2m (2018 Prices)and it is proposed to allocate this amount to the ESF OP, which is managed by the ESF Managing Authority in my Department to support training and employment measures across the economy and regions under the July Jobs Stimulus Package.  An OP amendment is currently being prepared for approval by the Programme Monitoring Committee and submission to the European Commission.

The second tranche of  funding is expected to be allocated through the ERDF, subject to agreement on the measures to be supported. This is currently under consideration and will be drawn up in the coming months.