Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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231. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress made to date in implementing the national recovery and resilience plan; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56546/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) is funded under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) with Ireland in line to receive €915 million in grants over the lifetime of the Facility.

The RRF, as part of NextGenerationEU, represents an unprecedented response by the European Union to the public health and economic and social crisis caused by COVID-19.

In order to access this funding, Ireland has developed the NRRP. The plan sets out the sixteen investment projects and nine reform measures which will be supported covering the following priority areas:

- Advancing the Green Transition;

- Accelerating and Expanding Digital Reforms and Transformation;- Social and Economic Recovery and Job Creation.

The overall objective of the NRRP is to contribute to a sustainable, equitable, green and digital recovery effort, complementing and supporting the Government’s broader recovery effort.

The RRF is a performance-based instrument based on each project/reform meeting demanding milestones and targets.Ireland is expected to begin the process of submitting the first payment request to the Commission before the end of the year. Annual payment claims will follow this cycle up until 2026.

My Department is the Implementing Body for the NRRP, while a senior level NRRP Delivery Committee, chaired by my Department and deputy co-chaired by the Departments of the Taoiseach and Finance, is responsible for driving implementation. However, responsibility for implementing the individual projects/reforms lies with the relevant Departments and bodies.

The Plan is the subject of a Financing Agreement between the Commission and Ireland which was signed by myself and the Minister for Finance, following approval by the Government.

Implementation of the overall plan is well underway. As part of regulatory reporting requirements Ireland has reported to the Commission on biannual progress in April 2022 and October 2022.

On 10 November 2022, Ireland hosted its first Annual Event, an RRF regulatory requirement. The Annual Event, which was opened by Minister of State Ossian Smyth, centred on the key green, digital and social priority areas and showcased some of Ireland’s NRRP projects. The attendance included European Commission delegates, the project managers for projects within the Plan as well as key stakeholders.