Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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189. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the EU funding opportunities that will be open for application for schemes under his Department and at agencies under his aegis in the next six months and in the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56459/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding in relation to public transport.

The Department of Transport and its agencies seek to leverage appropriate EU funding opportunities, to complement exchequer funds and to help ensure that we deliver a significant investment in public transport in the years and decades to come.

The Irish Ports of National Significance are our key international maritime gateways, handling approximately 90% of all tonnage. As an island nation, we recognise that we must be capable of delivering additional ports capacity and the importance of ports in connecting Ireland to the rest of the world in terms of trade and transport.

The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) is a key driving factor in supporting Irish Ports to deliver on their capital investment projects in order to facilitate this development and expansion. In July 2024 two Irish port projects were selected to receive more than €112m in funding from the CEF Funding for Transport fund- Dublin Port MP2 Project and Port of Cork Expansion Project. In addition, it was announced in July 2025 that Rosslare Europort has been selected to receive €19.2 million towards their Green Drift project.

The Department continues to monitor and engage with the ports regarding their future plans and will remain proactive in exploring any funding opportunities that may become available to them. Details of such plans can be provided directly by the ports.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has statutory responsibility for the planning and development of public transport infrastructure, including in relation to rail, together with Iarnród Éireann (IÉ). The operation, maintenance and renewal of the rail network is a matter for IÉ in the first instance.

Noting the NTA and IÉ's responsibility in this matter, as well as TII's responsibility in relation to wider transport infrastructure projects, I have referred the Deputy's question to the NTA, to TII and to IÉ for a more direct reply. Please contact my private office if you do not receive a reply within 10 days.