Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 16 February 2023
185. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Transport for a breakdown of Ten-T funding for transport projects received since 1999, in tabular form by year and amount; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7865/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraInformation is provided below on TEN-T and CEF funding for Irish projects from 2000 to date, with detailed information provided in tabular format for the years 2007 onwards, based on the year of the Funding Call and the total amount of EU funding allocated for the successful project.
As the information below does not cover the whole period requested by the Deputy, I have asked TII, Irish Rail, and the IAA to respond directly to the Deputy with a breakdown of TEN-T funding they received for the period 1999-2006 in tabular format. Should they fail to provide this information within ten days, I would ask that the Deputy contacts my office directly.
Tables 1-4 CEF funding for Ireland
2000-2006
For the period 2000-2006, EUR 4.43 billion was allocated to the development of the TEN-T network across Europe. Grants awarded permitted co-funding of projects up to a maximum of 10% on national and a maximum of 20% on cross border sections. Funding was focused on pre-defined 'priority projects'. For Ireland, these were the United Kingdom/Ireland/Benelux road axis and the Cork–Dublin–Belfast–Stranraer railway axis.
Roads projects that received TEN-T funding during this period include the N8 Cashel Bypass, the N7 Naas Road Widening, and the M1/NI from Dundalk to the border. For rail, funding was granted to aid the elimination of a number of key permanent speed restrictions along the Belfast-Dublin-Cork Intercity Rail Corridor.
In addition to these priority projects, TEN-T funding was also available for multi-country projects focused on horizontal priorities including air traffic management, intelligent transport systems for roads, and the so-called 'motorways of the sea'. Along with France, Italy and Spain, Ireland participated in the Western Europe Sea Transport & Motorways of the Sea (WEST-MOS) project which received €0.9m TEN-T funding.
2007-2013
Under the EU's 2007-2013 financial framework, TEN-T funding of €8.01 billion was made available. It provided for co-funding rates of 50% for studies and maximum rates of 10%-30% for works, depending on the type of project. Thirty priority projects were identified, two of which were particularly relevant to Ireland: the UK/Ireland/Benelux road axis and the railway/road axis Ireland/United Kingdom/continental Europe.
Table 1 shows information on TEN-T funding for Ireland only projects during this period.As with the previous programming period, TEN-T funding was also available for multi-country projects focused on horizontal projects. Table 2 provides information on such projects for this period.
2014-2020
From 2014, the Connecting Europe Facility became the EU funding instrument to support development of the TEN-T network. In the period 2014-2020, €24.05 billion was made available for the transport projects. CEF Transport focuses on cross-border projects and projects aiming at removing bottlenecks or bridging missing links in various sections of the TEN-T core and comprehensive networks, as well as for horizontal priorities such as traffic management systems.
2021 to date
The current CEF programme will run from 2021 to 2027. The general objective of the current CEF Transport programme is to develop and complete the TEN-T network, while taking into account the EU’s long-term climate goals. The overall budget allocated to transport projects over this period is €25.81 billion. This funding is allocated via competitive calls, the results of the first of these calls were published last summer. Table 4 provides information on funding awarded to Irish beneficiaries to date during this programming period.
