EU funding: Rumours of its demise are greatly exaggerated
Ireland received billions of euros of EU investment since the 1980s through the Cohesion Fund and, in particular, the Structural Funds, making a hugely significant contribution to improving our social and physical infrastructure and enabling us to catch up impressively with our wealthier neighbours.
Of course, the success of these interventions has meant that the amounts have naturally diminished, but while the familiar blue and yellow stars on signage acknowledging such assistance for roads and water treatment facilities are less in evidence nowadays, that isn’t to say that the tap has been turned off.
In fact, Ireland will not even become a net contributor to the EU budget before 2011, and continues to benefit from access to a raft of funding opportunities, some of which are accessed on a national level and some available to innovative organisations pursuing initiatives that can demonstrate a ‘European’ angle.
While it is obviously over-simplistic to characterise Ireland’s relationship with Brussels in purely financial terms, it is essential to recognise the continued practical role that European finance can potentially play on behalf of Ireland’s society and economy.
Indeed, the announcement of redundancies at DELL in Limerick last winter brought into sharp focus the value of the support that is available in the current economic climate, with the government being able to unlock €14.8 million from the EU Globalisation Adjustment Fund to help with retraining and reemployment prospects.
These alternative types of support have been available to Ireland for many years but, at a time when the public finances were in a healthier state, were somewhat dwarfed by the sheer scale and ready availability of Structural Funding.
Their time to shine may now finally be here.
Structural Funding continues to be provided to Ireland through a series of focused initiatives designed to complement home-grown strategies and government policies including the National Development Plan.
The bulk of this support between 2007 and 2013 is being channelled into three programmes to which the EU has provided a collective €750 million.
The Border, Midland & Western and Southern & Eastern Regional Assemblies each manage a regional ‘Competitiveness and Employment’ programme to reflect the different developmental needs of these areas.
These involve schemes earmarked to support specific initiatives on micro-enterprise; innovation and research & development capacity; broadband; water quality; energy efficiency and renewable energy; urban regeneration and quality of life; and improved accessibility including public transport.
Additionally, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment are managing a national Human Capital programme to invest in education, skills and employment support, and equal opportunities for marginalised groups.
In the current economic climate, the European contribution to these funds should collectively play a significant role in priming the economy and upskilling its workforce.
What’s more, the delivery is guaranteed, even during times of economic downturn when almost all other public spending seems open to question.
Two other financial instruments finance the Common Agricultural Policy: the Agricultural Guarantee Fund for market related expenditure and direct payments to farmers; and the Agricultural Fund for Rural Development supporting competitive agriculture and forestry, better land management, rural quality of life and economic diversification in line with the National Rural Development Plan and based in large part on the well-known LEADER approach.
There is also a substantial European Fisheries Fund to strengthen the viability and sustainability of this sector.
While these funds are pre-negotiated between the EU and national governments, another form of support is available more directly to organisations such as local authorities, development agencies, public administrations, NGOs and even private sector interests.
The European Commission sets aside significant funding to support areas ranging from lifelong learning to transport; energy to culture; youth to environment; ICT to civil protection and various others. Some funds deal with a single policy area while others, such as the Interreg suite of programmes linking Ireland with certain parts of the UK and the continent, are a form of umbrella structure covering various themes.
Such funding is allocated on a competitive basis, meaning that organisations must take part in a proactive bidding process. This is aimed at allowing the cream – in quality terms – to rise to the top and takes ambition, time and effort but can pay rich dividends.
The funding allocated is intended to complement whatever an organisation is itself prepared to put into the proposed endeavour in the form of its own resources or additional national subsidies.
The means available to an organisation to pursue an initiative can be doubled or even trebled – provided that there is a suitable ‘European’ angle.
This requirement is underlined by the fact that most funds require applications to be jointly drawn up by partnerships of organisations from different countries. Aside from the financial rewards, these projects represent the EU in action locally by allowing organisations to collaborate with likeminded partners on issues of common concern.
Each fund has its own requirements and operates by publishing a series of public ‘calls for proposals’ requesting applications on particular topics. The parameters are generally quite broad – leaving it up to those proposing the bids to present a compelling case for supporting their initiative.
What are most valued are applications which bring together partners to achieve something which could not be done by acting in isolation, and which demonstrate a degree of groundbreaking character.
Supported activities are expected to be able to continue and prosper in the long-term once the initial funding has ended, and to be persuasive enough to influence the thinking of key decision-makers such as national governments who may be in a position to adopt and roll-out their methods on a wider scale.
Even where a grant is not feasible, the EU and its Member States may offer other solutions. Earlier this year, in response to the current economic crisis, the European Parliament and EU ministers allocated €110 million towards a crucial electricity interconnector between Ireland and Wales.
Additionally, as part of the same broad European Economic Recovery package, it was also agreed to inject somewhere in the region of a further €14 million into the National Rural Development Programme towards finally achieving 100% high-speed internet coverage across Ireland. Meanwhile, the EU’s own bank – the European Investment Bank - provides various loan schemes under advantageous conditions to enable access to significant long-term financing for key initiatives. Close to €4 billion has been provided to Ireland since 2004 to ensure progress on ventures such as; the ESB’s major development of national wind power capacity, its natural gas-fired power plant at Aghada in east Cork, Dublin Airport’s expansion, the river Shannon tunnel for Limerick’s Southern Ring, the design, build and operation of 27 new schools,and various local authority water supply, wastewater and waste management infrastructure. Financing negotiations for major transport infrastructure projects including the Metro North and DART Underground schemes are underway.
Additionally, mindful of the economic climate, a series of applications from the main Irish banks to provide small and medium-sized businesses with access to €300 million in credit have been approved by the EIB. Venture capital facilities to bolster high-technology and strong growth potential SMEs are also available.
During October the IRO, in association with its Regional Authorities, is delivering a series of workshops in Dublin, Clonmel, Athlone and Ennis to better inform Ireland’s Local Authorities about direct EU funding opportunities.
Recent initiatives where Irish organisations have availed of EU funding include:
* Cork City Council’s Traffic Division has used a series of EU programmes such as CIVITAS, Interreg 3C and Intelligent Energy Europe plus the support of key networks like POLIS to deliver more efficient and sustainable urban transport
* Tipperary Institute last year secured €4.1 million from the CONCERTO fund to work alongside North Tipperary County Council on the SERVE project to develop an eco-village at Cloughjordan.
* The Mid-West Regional Authority’s award-winning ‘Citizen First’ initiative engages with isolated and socially disadvantaged communities to deliver internet-based public services and the training to allow participants to make use of them.
* Limerick City Council’s ‘Water in Historic City Centres’ project, has worked on regenerating the city’s neglected Park Canal corridor and developing it as an attractive feature for residential, leisure and economic use.
* ‘DRIVE for Growth’ which has involved the South-West and South-East Regional Authorities in pioneering an electronic platform to link research facilities and the needs of local industry and enterprise.
* ‘COREPOINT’ – promoting strategies to enable local authorities to undertake ongoing Integrated Coastal Zone Management and including the Coastal & Marine Resources Centre, UCC and Cork and Donegal County Councils.
* The collaboration between the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Teagasc and the IFA on ‘BurrenLife’ to create a balance between farming practices and conservation on the fragile Co. Clare landscape.
* Waterford Institute of Technology’s work with Aberystwyth University under the Interreg Ireland-Wales programme to create ‘Sustainable Learning Networks’ among SME owner/managers in the South-East.
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