5 Jul 2012, 17:49
The Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement today discussed the delivery of EU funding specifically targeted at Northern Ireland and the border counties.
Pat Colgan, Chief Executive of the Special EU Programmes Body, briefed the Committee on its work in delivering PEACE and INTERREG EU cross border funding.
Chairman of the Committee Joe McHugh TD says: “Over the past 15 years, thousands of community projects have been supported to foster peace and reconciliation. The Committee heard Mr Colgan outline the extraordinary scope and reach of both the PEACE and INTERREG funding his body is involved in delivering. Co-funded by the European Commission, the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government, €600m is being delivered in the current round of the programme between 2007 and 2013.
“The Committee is acutely aware of the economic times where budgets everywhere are coming under increasing pressure so we are cognisant of the challenges faced by the Irish and British Governments in sustaining the levels of funding between 2014 and 2020. We note Mr Colgan’s view that the Irish Presidency of the European Union in the first six months of 2013 might provide a key window in which the budgetary funding for the programmes can be secured.”
\"The Committee welcomes the news that, since yesterday, an issue which had delayed the release of Peace III funding by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, which funds 81% of the Irish element of the programme, has been resolved. This will come as very welcome news for those organisations who have been affected and who are awaiting funding under this programme.\"
“A number of Committee Members raised the issue of delays in funding being applied for under the programme. The Committee agrees with Mr Colgan that, in any future programmes the architecture of decision-making should be streamlined in order that funding can be delivered within a 26 week timeframe.”
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Ends
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Members of the Committee:
Deputies Seán Conlan, Seán Crowe, Clare Daly, Regina Doherty, Peter Fitzpatrick, Frank Feighan, Martin Ferris, Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan, Dominic Hannigan, Michael P. Kitt, Joe McHugh, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, Joe O’Reilly, Brendan Smith and Joanna Tuffy.
Senators Jim D’Arcy, Maurice Cummins, Martin McAleese, Mary Moran, Mary White.
Chairman: Joe McHugh, TD Vice-Chairman: Joe O'Reilly, TD