Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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121. To ask the Minister for Finance the projects and programmes with his Department which have been allocated funding under the EU's Recovery and Resilience Programme; the funds drawn down to date in each instance; the profiled drawdown in each of the forthcoming years of the programme; the steps he is taking to ensure that projects and programmes are completed within the specified timeframe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37786/24]

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Recovery and Resilience Facility – or RRF – is a European Union instrument through which the European Commission raises funds on capital markets and makes them available to Member States to implement reforms and investments. It is the central element of the NextGenerationEU recovery package, which was introduced to enable a swift recovery from the health and economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Importantly, the RRF is performance-based. In order for Member States to avail of funding, they must satisfy milestones and targets agreed with the Commission and approved by the Council at the time of National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) formulation. All projects in a Member State’s NRRP are classified either as reforms or investments. Milestones and targets represent key steps in the implementation of these reforms and investments. Once a pre-agreed group of milestones and targets are satisfied, a Member State can make a payment request of the Commission, which will assess the progress of that Member State.

Ireland’s NRRP is based on 21 investment and ten reform projects. The Department of Finance has full responsibility for three reform projects and shared responsibility with the Department of Justice for a fourth (Project 3.5).

1. Project 1.9 – Implementation of Base Broadening Carbon Tax measures
2. Project 3.5 – Strengthening Ireland’s capacity to address Anti-Money Laundering
3. Project 3.6 – Continue to address Aggressive Tax Planning
4. Project 3.7 – Advance Ireland’s Pensions reforms