Ireland ‘well placed’ to benefit from EU investment plan, says Harris

Ireland is “very well placed” to benefit from the EU’s investment plan, junior finance minister Simon Harris has said, as the European Commission confirmed the preliminary list of projects that may be eligible for the €315 billion scheme.

A number of public and private schemes, including Irish Water, an interconnector with France, and a re-development of a number of ports across the country, have been submitted by the Irish government for consideration by the European Commission.

Other projects in the task force list submitted by the Government include: the Grid West project, a number of wind farms under development by Bord na Mána, Coillte and the ESB, the national broadband plan, the government’s afforestation plan,the Shannon Airport development plan, a new runway at Dublin Airport, the Dart Underground proposal, and a social housing and school modernisation programme.

“While stressing that the list was “preliminary”, Mr Harris said that Ireland could have been criticised for lacking ambition if it had not put in such a comprehensive list.

“This is illustrative of the fact that we have a number of projects that are in the pipeline and could be delivered . . . What happened today at ecofin is that we had a political agreement that we want the fund in place, he said, following today’s meeting of EU finance ministers which gave political backing to the plan.

More than 2,000 projects have been submitted to the European Commission from across the European Union as part of a first-round of call for eligible projects.

Mr Harris said he was confident that the projects submitted by the Government fulfilled the criteria for the investment plan, which requires that the projects have value at an EU level.

While Ireland was geographically disconnected from continental Europe, the Minister said that projects which involve the upgrading of infrastructure, energy supplies and higher education institutions bring added value to the European Union and its competitiveness.

However, he stressed that inclusion on the list did not guarantee inclusion in the project.

“Member states were asked to produce lists of projects that could potentially be funded.

“Being on the list doesn’t guarantee you’ll be funded. Not being on the list does not mean you can’t yet be on the list. It is indicative of a pipeline.”

EU leaders, including Enda Kenny are expected to discuss the investment plan further at next week’s summit in Brussels.

The Investment Plan for Europe was unveiled by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker last month, as a way of kick-starting the European economy, which has been struggling with low growth and investment levels. The plan – a joint investment project between the European Investment Bank and the European Commission – consists of a core fund of €21 billion which will be leveraged to attract private investment worth 15 times that amount.

The fund is expected to be in place by next June.

Germany submitted 58 projects for the scheme, with a capital value of 89 billion euro.

While European finance ministers in Brussels endorsed the plan, a number of countries in central and eastern Europe have expressed concerns that the scheme will be targeted at low-risk economies such as Germany.