Brendan Howlin agrees €818m investment deal with EU

Every house in the country should be linked up to high-speed broadband while 60,000 small and medium- sized companies can expect financial assistance from the EU’s regional development fund.

Wed, 25 Feb, 2015 - 00:00

Ann Cahill, Europe Correspondent

The agreement drawing down €409m from the EU which will be matched by government funds bringing the total to €818m was signed in Brussels by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin.

For the first time the country will have three rather than two regions, leaving the Border, Midlands and West as one but dividing the rest of the country into a greater Dublin area including the capital, and the east and south.

The fund will cover seven years and work will begin immediately in selecting projects to benefit from the investment, Mr Howlin said. He said there will now be three regional assemblies involved in the decisions.

He said there was a demand for four regions with Limerick wanting to be separate from Cork but in the end it was agreed while the people of Ballymena did not necessarily have the same focus as those in Ballydehob, just three regions were necessary.

The programmes are expected to support more than 60,000 SMEs with finance or supports such as mentoring, management training and advisory services.

This is expected to help create more than 9,000 jobs in these enterprises while funding for research is expected to create 900 jobs in research institutions in the regions. A further 340 companies designated as high-growth will get funds for research, development and innovation projects.

Broadband to regions that have had poor or no internet is expected to link-up 300,000 households. It is hoped this will help create online jobs.

A separate €551m is being contributed by the EU, Ireland and Britain to the Peace and Interreg programmes focused on cross border community building and job creation.

Ireland will also be drawing down an additional €3bn up to 2020 for education and skills, and rural development and seafood development. These will be matched by €3bn from the state.