The European Commission has notified the Department that its application for funding under this programme has been accepted. The application is being processed for payment in the Commission and it is expected that funds will arrive in the Department in less than two months.
Because of concern that the current Irish INTERREG projects would be cut back or abandoned due to the long payment delays referred to by the Deputy the Department had attempted to find an interim solution in this case as I indicated in reply to Question No. 172 on 27 January to Deputy Quinn. This interim solution involved the use of Exchequer funds. However, following discussion with the Department of Finance, this was not considered possible in terms of public financial procedure requirements and because, for example, of the creation of a precedent for other cases of delay in receipt of EU funding. While I am aware that pre-financing to cover delays in the receipt EU funding was provided through Welsh local authorities to their INTERREG promoters, there is no such facility available in the Irish case at this time. In the circumstances every effort will continue to be made by the Department to get the European Commission to provide the expected funding as quickly as possible and, on receipt, to pay it over to the projects with the minimum of delay.