Approximately 3.2 billion euro of Structural Funds was allocated to Ireland for the 2000-2006 programming period. In addition, over 600 million euro was allocated under the Cohesion Fund and Trans European Networks (TENS). An additional 2.2 billion euro was allocated under the EAGGF Guidance to co-finance the separate CAP Rural Development Programme 2000-2006.
My Department oversees the management of the Community Support Framework (CSF) 2000-2006 which contains Ireland's strategy for the use of the Structural, Cohesion and TENS Funds. The CAP Rural Development Programme is managed by the Department of Agriculture and Food.
The CSF is implemented through seven Operational Programmes which are managed by Government Departments and Agencies as set out in Table 1.
Table 1: Operational Programmes and Managing Authorities under the CSF 2000-2006
Operational Programme
|
Managing Authority
|
Economic and Social Infrastructure OP
|
Department of Transport
|
Employment and Human Resources OP
|
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
|
Productive Sector OP
|
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment
|
S&E Regional OP
|
Southern & Eastern Regional Assembly
|
BMW Regional OP
|
Border, Midland & Western Regional Assembly
|
Peace OP
|
Special EU Programmes Body
|
Technical Assistance OP
|
Department of Finance
|
The annual financial allocations for the European Structural Funds, the Cohesion Fund and Trans European Networks (TENS) are set out in the CSF programming document (a copy of which is available on www.ndp.ie) and detailed in Table 2.
Table 2: Annual allocations under the CSF 2000-2006 —
€ millions
|
Year
|
Structural Funds
|
Cohesion Fund
|
TENS
|
Annual Total
|
2000
|
664.0
|
136.8
|
6.8
|
807.6
|
2001
|
600
|
167.3
|
18.4
|
785.7
|
2002
|
534.1
|
136.0
|
10.6
|
680.7
|
2003
|
464.0
|
127.3
|
7.1
|
598.4
|
2004
|
334.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
334.0
|
2005
|
317.1
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
317.1
|
2006
|
259.0
|
0.0
|
0.0
|
259
|
Totals
|
3,172.2
|
567.4
|
42.9
|
3,782.5
|
As you can see, a total of 3,782 million euro was allocated to Ireland under the CSF 2000-2006 comprising 3,172 million euro Structural Funds, 567 million euro Cohesion Funds and almost 43 million euro TENS.
As set out in Table 1, my Department is Managing Authority for the Technical Assistance Operational Programme 2000-2006 of the CSF and as such, has a total allocation of 4.9 million euro of EU Funds for Programme implementation. This represents 0.13% of EU funding allocated under the CSF 2000-2006.
The Technical Assistance Operational Programme has five measures which cover:
The administration costs of the NDP/CSF Monitoring Committee;
All ongoing evaluations including the mid term evaluation of the NDP/CSF;
Information and publicity;
The ERDF and Cohesion Fund Audit Unit, and
Administrative arrangements for the development of Public Private Partnerships.
Table 3 sets out the annual allocation of these EU funds to the Technical Assistance Operational Programme and the percentage of EU funding under the CSF 2000-2006.
Table 3: Annual allocations of EU funds under the Technical Assistance Operational Programme 2000-2006.
Year
|
Allocation of Structural Funds — Euro millions
|
Allocation as % of EU funds in CSF 2000-2006
|
|
|
%
|
2000
|
1.1
|
0.14
|
2001
|
0.9
|
0.11
|
2002
|
0.8
|
0.12
|
2003
|
0.7
|
0.12
|
2004
|
0.5
|
0.15
|
2005
|
0.5
|
0.16
|
2006
|
0.4
|
0.15
|
Total
|
4.9
|
0.13
|