Written Answers. - Parliamentary Debates - Houses of the Oireachtas

[Deputy Brendan Howlin.]
Questions— 14 February 2012. Written Answers
The general programme priorities in Ireland are the promotion and encouragement of innovation,
the knowledge economy, enterprise, research and development, upskilling the workforce
and increasing the participation of groups outside the workforce. It is expected that the
overall objectives of each programme will be achieved and that Ireland will drawdown the
funding we have been allocated.
Following the informal European Council meeting on 30 January, EU Commission President
Barroso has launched a special initiative to boost growth and tackle the problem of youth
unemployment.
The Commission will work with the eight Member States with the highest youth unemployment
rates to develop a plan which could use unallocated structural funds to strengthen national
programmes. The Commission will be promoting a plan in each Member State with measures
to deal with youth employment and strengthen support schemes for SMEs. President Barroso
envisages that the funding would come from existing unallocated EU funds and from any
available national funding, from either public or private sources.
At present, Ireland has no unallocated Structural Funds. Recent Commission figures show
that Ireland has the highest Cohesion absorption rate in the EU at 48% for the current 2007-
2013 Structural and Cohesion funding round and it is estimated that the remaining 52% allocated
to Ireland will be drawn down.
I strongly welcome President Barroso’s initiative. I and other members of the Government
will be working closely with the EU Commission.
As there are no unused Structural and Cohesion funds available for Ireland at present, we
will, in the first instance, be looking at whether employment programmes might be re-focused
to better effect. If, at a later stage, additional EU funding becomes available, Ireland will make
the necessary application.
Dealing with unemployment is the major priority for the Government and this is an initiative
which must be utilized to maximum effect.
Public Private Partnerships
268. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his
understanding of the number of financial institutions willing to participate in public private
partnerships, PPPs; his views of the operation of the marker for PPPs; and the steps he intends
to take to assist a more efficient operating of the market. [8480/12]
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Brendan Howlin): It is widely acknowledged
that there is limited liquidity in the European PPP market as the majority of the large
international project finance banks have refocused activities on home markets. Furthermore
Ireland’s fiscal and banking difficulties has meant that such international banks are additionally,
for the first time in modern times, taking ‘country risk’ into account before considering funding
a project in Ireland. In reality, this has led to the absence of international project finance banks
in the Irish PPP market.
However the European Investment Bank (EIB) continues to be a strong supporter of our
PPPs and we appreciate the support and confidence shown by EIB’s continued engagement to
help us meet our infrastructure needs. In addition, our domestic ‘pillar’ banks continue to give
positive indications of support for our PPP projects. My Department has worked closely with
the NDFA and the Department of Finance to secure funding from a mixture of EIB and
domestic bank funding for the two ‘live’ PPP projects on a value for money basis for the State.
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