Vol. 430 No. 4
47 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs if, in regard to the meeting of EC Foreign Ministers on 8 March 1993, he will give details of when the promised £1 billion of EC funds for environmental and transport projects will come on stream; if this money forms part of the £8 billion funds agreed at the Edinburgh summit; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The Regulation on which the General Affairs Council reached agreement on 8 March provides that the money intended for the Cohesion Funds can come on stream in 1993. The Regulation entered into force on 1 April.
The Regulation provides for one-and-a-half billion ECUs (about £1.2 billion pounds) in 1993. The Regulation specifies that Ireland is to get between 7 and 10 per cent of this. The funds can cover between 80 and 85 per cent of the public funding of projects.
The total amount of the Cohesion Fund up to 1999 will be 15.150 billion ECUs, which is over £12 billion, of which Ireland is to get between 7 and 10 per cent.
The Cohesion Fund money is part of the overall amounts committed by the Edinburgh European Council for structural and cohesion purposes. The Edinburgh European Council specified that the funds for Ireland, Spain, Greece and Portugal, taking the Cohesion Fund and Structural Funds together, should amount to 85 billion ECU between 1993 and 1999. Account was taken of likely future receipts from the Cohesion Fund in estimating the proportion of this which would come to Ireland over the period in question.
