Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

74. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the totality of the funds requested and drawn down by his Department from EU sources in respect of covid-19 in each of the years 2020 to 2023 and to date in 2024, in tabular form (details supplied). [30228/24]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

NextGenerationEU is the EU’s temporary recovery instrument to support Europe’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and build a greener, more digital and more resilient future. The centrepiece of NextGenerationEU is the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) - an instrument that offers grants and loans to support reforms and investments in the EU Member States. RRF funds are being provided to Member States in line with their National Recovery and Resilience plans – the roadmaps to reforms and investments aimed to make EU economies greener, digital and more resilient.

Following adoption of Ireland’s REPowerEU chapter at the June ECOFIN, Ireland’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) is now worth €1.15 billion in grants over the lifetime of the RRF.

The RRF is a performance-based instrument with payment contingent on the satisfactory achievement of milestones and targets. The delivery of the plan is well underway. Ireland’s first payment request for €324m has received a positive assessment from the Commission and drawdown is expected in the coming weeks. This corresponds to 28% of all the funds in the revised Irish plan, with 34% of all the milestones and targets fulfilled.

In response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commission also introduced additional flexibilities, delivered through two Coronavirus Response Investment Initiatives (CRII and CRII+), to enable Member States to respond to the crisis using available funding in the 2014-20 programmes, at a co-financing rate of 100%. Ireland took advantage of these flexibilities and reprogrammed funds to the value of €311 million of unclaimed ERDF funding for a new Health Support Scheme used to support the purchase of PPE for the Health Services, which was critical at that time.

* To note that the Commission retains a portion of claims to enable a balancing exercise at programme closure.