Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 July 2016
264. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he has implemented the structures and systems necessary to certify expenditure under the European Union regulations and have them verified by a designated body, to a level acceptable to the European Commission, in order to draw down funding from the youth employment initiative; and if this has not been done, the reason why. [20873/16]
View answer265. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Skills if Ireland has complied with the relevant regulatory requirements of making interim claims under the European Union youth employment initiative since its inception; and if not, the reason why. [20874/16]
View answer266. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Education and Skills if Ireland has complied with the relevant regulatory requirements of making interim claims under the European Union Youth Employment Initiative since its inception; and if it does not, the amount of funding Ireland has been unable to access each year, in tabular form. [20875/16]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 264 to 266, inclusive, together.
The EU co-financed Youth Employment Initiative (YEI), which aims to tackle youth unemployment and implement the Youth Guarantee, is integrated into European Social Fund programming and is being delivered in Ireland as a dedicated priority axis within the ESF Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning (PEIL) 2014-2020. The specific YEI funding allocation for Ireland of €68m is matched by equal amounts from our ESF allocation and from the Exchequer, giving an overall allocation of €204m.
The rules governing the ESF provide for initial pre-financing of EU support at 1% (or 1.5% for Member States under financial assistance in 2014 and 2015) of the full programme support, payable for each year from 2014 to 2016, together with annual pre-financing of 2% payable in 2016. However, in order to mobilise faster YEI actions on the ground, the initial pre-financing of the YEI EU support was exceptionally increased to 30% in 2015. Accordingly Ireland has received €23.5m YEI pre-financing to date.
The Regulations providing for the exceptional increase specified that where a Member State did not submit an interim payment application by 23 May 2016 for at least 50% of the additional pre-financing amount, the Member State must reimburse the Commission the total YEI pre-financing contribution. The ESF regulations provide that annual prefinancing for any year in which an interim payment application is not made in that year must also be reimbursed.
As work on the designation of the relevant ESF authorities, including the provision of a national computerised accounting and information system for EU funds to meet the 2014-2020 functionality requirements, is continuing, Ireland did not comply with the requirement to submit an interim YEI payment application by the due date. In accordance with the relevant Regulations, the €19.8m additional pre-financing received and currently held in a Suspense Account, is due to be reimbursed to the Commission. My Department is liaising with the Commission in this regard. Similarly, as it is not intended that there will be a YEI application made this year, the annual prefinancing for 2016 will be reimbursed also, as set out in the following table.
However, it should be noted that the reimbursement of these amounts will not result in any loss of EU monies to the Exchequer, as the full YEI allocation of €68m to Ireland will still be available for drawdown before year-end 2018, and it is expected that this funding will be fully drawn down. Furthermore, as the activities concerned are fully funded up-front by the Exchequer there is no resulting reduction or delay in the funding available to those activities.
Table YEI Pre-financing Position
|
Category of Funding |
Amount Received |
Amount to be reimbursed |
|
2014–2016 Initial Pre-financing |
€2,385,089.67 |
€0 |
|
Additional Pre-financing |
€19,762,171.51 |
€19,762,171.51 |
|
2016 Annual Pre-financing |
€1,362.908.38 |
€1,362.908.38 |
