Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2020
429. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation the number of projects approved under the third call of the Regional Enterprise Development Fund; the number of projects that were not approved by county in each year; the main reasons for refusal; and if there is an appeal mechanism in place by county in tabular form. [3927/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department's Regional Enterprise Development Fund (REDF) was introduced to support the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative projects that can sustain and add to employment at county, regional and national level. The Fund has been administered on behalf of my Department by Enterprise Ireland. There have been three calls under the Fund, and just under €100 million in funding has been approved across 68 projects.
Call 3 of the REDF opened on 24th June 2019 and closed on 25th September 2019. A total of 61 projects were received by the call close date and 26 projects were approved funding totalling over €40 million. Projects were approved in each region.
I understand that with regards to the number of projects not approved, the Deputy is requesting information on projects not approved by county specifically under Call 3 of the REDF, which refers to the announcement made in 2020 only.
Enterprise Ireland has advised that a total of 35 projects were not approved for funding in Call 3, including four projects that did not meet the eligibility criteria to go forward for assessment; however due to the inter-county collaborative nature of the projects, it is not possible to track the number of unsuccessful projects by county. I can however advise the Deputy on the projects not approved by region, which is set out in the following table.
REDF Call 3
|
Region |
Applications not approved |
|
Mid East |
2 |
|
Dublin |
2 |
|
Midlands |
5 |
|
Mid-West |
6 |
|
North East |
3 |
|
North West |
5 |
|
South East |
3 |
|
South West |
5 |
|
West |
4 |
|
Total |
35 |
As regards the main reasons for refusal, the REDF was administered as a competitive Scheme and the eligibility criteria, assessment process and evaluation criteria were published in the Scheme Document. I have been informed by Enterprise Ireland that applicants were deemed unsuccessful based on not meeting eligibility criteria in the first instance; and following that, those eligible projects who did not meet the required score in the competitive evaluation process were then not approved for funding under the Scheme.
Enterprise Ireland have assured me that while there is no formal appeals process in the Scheme, all unsuccessful projects received detailed feedback from Enterprise Ireland's regional teams to assist them in strengthening their application for any future funding supports available to them.
