The European Commission has given a positive assessment of Ireland’s fourth payment request under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), clearing the way for €249 million to be paid out to the Irish government.
The European Commission said that Ireland has “satisfactorily” completed five milestones and three targets.
The funding has been designated for transport, health, skills and clean energy projects.
Those include measures to accelerate offshore wind deployment — supporting Ireland’s target to connect 5GW of offshore wind to the grid by 2030 and linked to the new South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan — and the roll‑out of an integrated financial management system, now live across 46 hospitals and health facilities to streamline public procurement and improve price transparency.
There will also be funding for skills and workforce development including programmes such as the SOLAS Green Skills Action Programme and Skills to Compete that have together trained more than 85,000 people in areas from ICT and coding to sustainable construction skills, according to the EU.
The Irish government lodged its request for the EU funding back in February. The latest tranche of €249 million is part of a wider package of €1.15 billion in grants from the European Union.
The European Commission says payments under the RRF to Ireland will reach €929 million, representing 80 percent of the national plan. It also said 80 percent of milestones and targets fulfilled.