A total of 18 Irish transport projects have been selected under the 2014-2016 EU’s Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) calls for funding, with one further Irish project selected for funding in December 2017. This includes projects where Ireland has joined with other Member States for funding for multi-beneficiary actions.
Irish beneficiaries have to date received over €58 million for projects on Ireland's core Trans-European Transport Network. This figure does not include funding where Irish project promoters have successfully joined with project promoters across other EU Member States. These would include successful applications for the deployment of Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) and road transport projects with other Member States, which includes studies on the harmonisation of interoperable intelligent transport systems (ITS) and cooperative Intelligent transport systems (C-ITS).
Details of all of Ireland’s successful projects are available on the INEA website:
https://ec.europa.eu/inea/en/connecting-europe-facility/cef-transport/projects-by-country/ireland
The following table gives a breakdown of the €58m from 2014 to date. It details the year in which each grant was agreed by the EU and the proposed implementation period for each project. The EU funding provided is not readily available by year.
Funding under the CEF is delivered in the form of grants allocated following competitive calls for proposals. There are at present two open calls for CEF funding (under SESAR and CEF Transport Blending) and I expect a number of Irish project promoters to submit applications under these calls. There may also be further calls for CEF funding between now and 2020.
The Department encourages operators in our transport sectors to explore all avenues of finance available for capital investment projects including domestic banks, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), as well as the European Investment Bank (EIB), Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and the European Fund for Strategic Investment (EFSI) in order to secure the most suitable funding instrument at the most favourable commercial rates. In many cases, a mix of funding instruments is used for capital projects by ports, roads aviation and public transport sectors.
Year of grant agreement
|
Name of Project
|
Maximum EU CEF contribution
|
Implementation Schedule
|
Exchequer Funding
|
Percentage of EU support
|
Year of grant agreement
|
Name of Project
|
Maximum EU CEF contribution
|
Implementation Schedule
|
Exchequer Funding
|
Percentage of EU support
|
2014
|
Irish Rail City centre re-signalling project
|
€13,080,188
|
January 2014 to December 2018
|
€34.86 million (2012 – 2017)
|
30%
|
2014
|
Dublin Port Alexandra Basin Redevelopment
|
€22,782,055
|
March 2015 to December 2019
|
n/a
|
10%
|
2014
|
Shannon Foynes Port Company Jetty Enhancement for Sea Port Infrastructure Connectivity
|
€2,200,000
|
January 2014 to February 2017
|
n/a
|
20%
|
2014
|
Shannon Foynes Port Company Connecting International Sea Cargo to the Irish Rail Network (CISCIRN)
|
€800,000
|
January 2014 to December 2017
|
n/a
|
50%
|
2014
|
Port of Cork Ringaskiddy Project
|
€12,736,001
|
January 2015 to December 2019
|
|
17%
|
2015
|
Gas Networks Ireland - The Causeway Study - Impact of CNG on the Irish Gas Network
|
€6,546,224
|
February 2016 to December 2020
|
n/a
|
41%
|
December 2017*
|
Shannon Foynes Port Company
|
€4, 477,000
|
|
n/a
|
|
*This grant agreement will be formally signed in 2018.