Vol. 577 No. 4
181 Mr. Deenihan asked the Minister for Education and Science the manner in which the ?7 million made available as part of the European Year of Education through Sport will be used; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31487/03]
I am responding to the Deputy's question on behalf of myself and my colleague, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism.
Approximately €6.5 million has been made available by the European Commission to part-fund projects throughout all member states of the European Union under the European Year of Education through Sport in 2004. Two types of project will be supported: projects involving one member state only, which may receive 50% Commission funding and trans-national projects, including eight or more member states which may receive 80% Commission funding.
In both cases it will be necessary for the groups organising the project to meet the outstanding costs, the matching 50% or matching 20% of the organisational and running costs of projects.
The amount of funding to be made available to each member state will be based on the EU Commission guidelines on the distribution of funding amongst member states based on the population of each country. Ireland's share of this overall amount of €6.5 million in terms of co-funding for projects is approximately €185,000.
