Rory O'Hanlon
Question:90 Dr. O'Hanlon asked the Minister for Finance when he expects INTERREG III and the Peace and Reconciliation programmes to be operational; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16096/00]
Written Answers. - EU Funding.
The guidelines in respect of the INTERREG III Community Initiative 2000-2006 were issued by the European Commission at the end of April this year. INTERREG III programmes must be submitted to the European Commission within six months of the publication of the guidelines – by the end of October 2000. INTERREG III programmes will not become operational until the European Commission formally approves the INTERREG programmes submitted. As the Commission may take some time to do this, INTERREG III programmes are unlikely to be operational before the beginning of 2001. In the meantime a consultation process on Ireland's INTERREG III programmes is being organised and seminars are taking place in June as part of this process. The seminar on the INTERREG III programme for Ireland-Northern Ireland is taking place in Monaghan on 21 June.
As regards the peace and reconciliation programme, following an extensive consultation process, a joint North-South draft Peace II programme document was submitted to the European Commission in early April. As the Commission must first approve the community support frameworks for Ireland and Northern Ireland, it is now expected that approval of the new peace programme by the European Commission will not be forthcoming before October this year. Because the new programme will utilise some of the implementation mechanisms from the earlier peace and reconciliation programme, inquiries and any preliminary work necessary to the appraisal of projects will be ongoing. However the peace II programme will be made fully operational from the time it is approved by the European Commission.
The Deputy will know that the peace and Ireland-Northern Ireland INTERREG programmes are now the responsibility of the special EU programmes body which has an office in Monaghan and which will keep the Deputy informed of developments.