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Transport Infrastructure Ireland Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 November 2015

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Ceisteanna (260, 261)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

260. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the Ten T projects proposed for funding in the last call for projects to national Governments by his Department; the basis on which they were selected; if the selection process was open and transparent; if the evaluation of all the projects considered was published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40943/15]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

261. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if funds are available under the financial envelope of the European Union for the period 2014 to 2020 for the development of transport infrastructure; the European Union sources of this funding; the types of funds available; if the Government has published an operational programme in relation to the allocation of these funds; the amount of funding available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40944/15]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I propose to take Questions Nos. 260 and 261 together.

Details of projects proposed for funding in the last CEF-transport call are available on the European Commission website http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5269_en.htm.

Irish projects recommended for co-funding include projects in the Ports of Cork,  Dublin and Shannon Foynes, and an Iarnród Eireann city-centre resignalling project. Irish organisations were also involved as consortium members in a number of projects recommended for funding in areas of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Motorways of the Sea (MoS) and  Single European Skies Automatic Traffic Management  System (SESAR).

The independent selection process is carried out by the Innovation Executive Agency under the aegis of DG MOVE in the commission and projects are evaluated by independent experts against criteria such as maturity, relevancy, quality ability to provide matching co-funding, fulfilling the conditions of the call for proposal and the TEN-t network and details of the evaluation are provided to project promoters.

In terms of future EU funding, the main source of funding for transport infrastructure is under CEF and another Call for transport projects under CEF was published earlier this month. Details can be found on the following link:  https://www.google.ie/?gws_rd=ssl#q=ten+t+network+amount+required+to+implement.

Following this Call, I understand that another CEF transport call for non-cohesion Member States may not arise until 2018. The majority of the direct provision CEF-transport budget for non-cohesion Member States(€9.08 billion) will be allocated under this call and the previous Call.

The future budget for CEF-transport co-funding for non-cohesion Member States will involve a review of progress on existing CEF projects and recycling of monies not being spent in accordance with project milestones and within the timeframe of 2014-2020. It is thus not possible to make  exact statement of future calls for proposals and budgets for this programme.

 I and my officials will continue to work with agencies under the remit of my Department and other Irish Organisations in advocating and facilitating suitable projects for direct provision co-funding and other financial instruments under CEF-transport.

 CEF-transport projects are administered for DG Move by Innovation and Executive Agency (INEA) independently of individual Member States.

Under Interreg IV (SEUPB)  EU funding was used for the Enterprise Refurb/Drogheda Viaduct rail project.

The new INTERREG Programme (VA) for 2014-2020 is one of 60 programmes across the European Union designed to promote greater levels of cross-border co-operation. Northern Ireland, the Border Region of Ireland and Western Scotland share a number of common features with other border areas across Europe where developmental problems are exacerbated by the existence of borders. The Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport is the lead Department for the Sustainable Transport measure. This measure has been allocated €40 m at a co-funding rate of 85% so it is a very valuable programme. The funding will be allocated to a multi-modal transport hub, to electric vehicle infrastructure and for greenways.

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