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THE GOVERNMENT IS to transfer €150 million of EU funding from the Brexit fund – aimed at sectors including agri-food and fisheries – to the Covid Recovery Fund, where a sizeable chunk will be put towards retrofitting, according to the Taoiseach.
Speaking in the Dáil this week, Leo Varadkar said that the Government “would have liked” to spend the money from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) Fund on businesses and the “agricultural sector”, but that it has come up against a range of obstacles in doing so.
The amount being transferred represents 20% of the €1.165 billion Ireland secured from the EU to help businesses, local communities, the agri-food sector and fisheries cope with the impact of Brexit.
The EU Covid Recovery and Resilience Fund (CRRF) was set up to help EU countries recover economically from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The CRRF is unique in that the payment to countries is conditional on them fulfilling pledged reforms and milestones that will make their economy more resilient.
Ireland’s plan is worth just under €1 billion, and its pledged reforms centre on green transition, digital reform and job creation.
Retrofitting already features in a range of the pledges Ireland has made, including working out the financial framework for a low cost residential retrofit loan scheme, and the commencement of retrofit works on public buildings.
A spokesperson for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) said that the Government has opted to transfer a portion of the BAR funds to Ireland’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), with the intention of spending it on initiatives that will fall into line with the EU’s plan to reduce the dependence of member states on Russian fossil fuel imports.
The spokesperson explained that the reason why the funds are being transferred is down to concerns that the money will not be spent on time, as it had to be spent between 2020 and the end of 2023, and also because of “the UK Government deciding not to impose custom checks on EU imports until the end of this year”.
Therefore, they said, the transfer of €150 million from one fund to another has been done with the intention of “mitigating the risk that Ireland would not be able to fully spend its BAR allocations within the eligibility period”.
They added that “at the same time”, this allowed “for additional new measures to be funded by the EU in the period up to 2026 that are well aligned with Government objectives to invest in energy efficiency and reduce dependence on foreign fossil fuel”.
Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Agriculture Matt Carthy said that there will be “understandable anger” amongst small farmers and those in the agri-food sector that a large portion of the BAR fund money is being transferred, to be spent on other initiatives.
“I was in the European Parliament when we campaigned to get the lion’s share of this BAR funding, and we used the stories of farmers, fisheries, and local businesses to secure it.
“It is hugely disappointing that this Government has decided to now transfer €150 million of that money out of the fund, without coming up with a strategy to use it to help the farmers, and communities that it was meant to help.
“If the political will was there to see this money directed towards the agricultural sector I have no doubt that it could be. With a bit of thought and creativity it would not have been that difficult.
Carthy added: “It is typical of this Government that they managed to find a way to give a €100 million of the Brexit funding to meat factories and other processors, but they have not even tried to direct this money towards farmers who are struggling.”
Independent TD Richard O’Donoghue asked the Taoiseach in the Dáil this week why the funding was being transferred, when it was supposed to be spent in support of “Ireland’s economy” in order to “mitigate the impact of Brexit”.
Leo Varadkar said that the Government “would have liked” to spend a lot of the BAR funding on helping businesses and the “agricultural sector”, but that to do that it would have to “demonstrate that those businesses have lost their profits, and gone into the red solely as a consequence of Brexit”.
Varadkar added that this is a difficult feat considering the “increased trade that’s occurred between Britain and Ireland”. He said that a lot of the BAR funding has been spent on upgrading port facilities, and on the fishing industry.
In response to O’Donoghue, Varadkar said that the Government has opted to transfer the money into the European recovery fund:
You can’t spend that on housing… but you can spend it on retrofitting, and that is one of the things we’ve decided to divert the funding to.
“That will be of benefit to the construction industry because it is the same people that carry out a lot of that work”.
Ireland was the biggest beneficiary of the BAR funding in the EU, but one of the smallest beneficiaries of the EU recovery fund.
It is not yet clear what other initiatives the €150m being transferred from one fund to the other will be spent on yet.
A DPER spokesperson said that the Department is considering a range of potential investment and reform proposals with the Departments of Environment, Climate and Communications, Finance and Taoiseach’s, which will be “subject to negotiations with the European Commission”.
Analysis by Noteworthy, in collaboration with journalists around Europe, found that many states, Ireland included, have repackaged old promises as part of their pledged recovery reforms.
Ireland’s carbon tax promise is an example of this. The government committed to raising its carbon tax by €7.50 annually, which was already a longstanding government commitment with cross-party support.
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The Journal and its investigative unit Noteworthy are part of the Recovery Files – a pan-European research project investigating the Recovery and Resilience Facility, initiated by Follow the Money in 2021.
Find out more and help support the Irish contribution to this project HERE>>
Half a million. they could get prisoners to do it for free if the justice system was worth anything.
@Brendan Hughes: it would cost in excess of €500k to put measures in place to ensure the prisoners were properly supervised and didn’t do a runner!
@Brendan Hughes: prisoners would go to court saying it’s not fair and want to be compensated for their time…courts and lawyers would cost millions…and then it could be a shocking job
@Brendan Hughes: why prisoners.. Social welfare claims…for generations can help
@Brendan Hughes: they might smoke the weeds.
@Ajax Penumbra: and you came up with that number using how many fingers
@Brendan Hughes: top marks. Bring in welfare for work & probation/ early release categories.
We are now at historic low unemployment level, so the residual, probably disengaged element , need to be drawn into formal work disciplines to get them into action. Doesn’t have to be chain gangs style either, but maybe even that should be considered for recidivist criminal convicts.
Lots of rehabilitation to be achieved by such reforms, apart from beneficial community services.
so , no directives regarding the kind of weedkillers used?
@Ixtrix Net: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/10/health/monsanto-johnson-trial-verdict/index.html
It all contains glyphosate with its side effects.
Let’s hope they don’t use any RoundUp
@⚡ Seánie ⚡:
Don’t hold your breath.
Alternative please?
@Patrick Nolan: How about a herd of Shetland ponies left loose on the city
@Tweety McTweeter:
Elephants have a bigger appetite.
@Patrick Nolan: horticultural vinegar
@Michael Henvey:
Roundup is a residual spray, it would not need to be repeated for about 6 weeks (depending on weather) and is rainfast (shower proof) in about 1 hour.
Horticultural vinegar needs at least 4-5 hours to absorb, might not work on “waxy” leave weeds and would need to be re-applied after 2-3 weeks.
Bottom line your alternative will cost at least twice as much to do half the job.
@⚡ Seánie ⚡:
I use Gallop.!
Seems grand and a value for money tender. are we supposed to be outraged?
@Gulliver Foyle: yes considering bees are dying out
Weeds no longer a mark down with Tidy Towns committee
@Quentin Moriarty: Turns out bees need Dandelions as they flower early and are full of nectar…
@TamuMassif2019: better to see a dandelion than an empty snack box on the path
@Quentin Moriarty: You see anything on footpaths now including human excrement…
No matter how careful they are with spraying, it will more than likely affect the honey bee population. Studies have found that the herbicide can interfere with the bees causing infection and subsequent reduction in the bee population. It’s probably more costly to remove the weeds manually, but what price continuation of healthy pollinating species.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/common-weed-killer-believed-harmless-animals-may-be-harming-bees-worldwide
Sounds like a terrible contract for the company that wins the tender. I’m all for getting value but a company that wins a tender should expect to carry out the work without fear of the tender process continuing run looking for a cheaper price. Respect needed on both sides.
@Alan: I think it might mean that the contractor also can’t prevent tidy towns, or resident groups etc from touching ‘their weeds’.
Maybe they could collect the leaves and then maybe clear the gutters and drains and finally the weeds.
So DCC will cancel contract if job not done good or someone else comes with cheaper price, no matter how long into contract!!!
Sounds like a race to the bottom , why don’t they do the same with council staff wages?
@Brian Smith: they should do the same with most of their contracts,paying company’s that do f##k all,give it to the community employment schemes,with a decent living wage.
Project for unemployed? Salary for an overall agent, wages for team leaders, a bit of a bonus on top of unemployment benefit for those who volunteer … a lot less expense in total, but, sorry, no brown envelopes exchanged with that idea
@WoodlandBard: technically as it would be a labour intensive job it will increase employment.
@WoodlandBard: People like Dewayne Johnson, a former school groundskeeper?
@John Murphy: indeed, John, my point, perhaps an inceptive for unemployed to work out some ideas for a job or a small business that costs little to start up.
Seemingly untidy and overgrown areas can be a haven for the wildlife of our city. These areas can be tidied up with a little bit of hard work. Last year I was horrified to see two guys on ride-on weed sprayer machines pulling up to spray most likely carcinogenic weed-killer in every direction while they remained seated. Some days later the area was entirely wilted. It is the lazy mans approach and it is killing our city and verges.
@Sean:
but they look tidy!!
The only weed control I’d be interested in is taking the control from criminal gangs and making it freely available for all who want to use it
‘damage is not done to trees and shrubs that are in the same areas as the weeds’ need to enforce that one,
Let’s hope that whoever gets the Contract that they train the Guys to recognize Weeds. I had to reseed my Grass verge a number of years ago after some Clown sprayed around the Tree that had Flowers
@Seosamh Mc Gabhann: That won’t happen. There is no definition of a weed except a plant growing where you don’t want it.
@Sean: I agree ☝️, but you would have to see the result , a mature tree surrounded by Howth Stone and planted with Flowers with a ring of dead grass, not a weed in sight !
Another angle of this is that what we call weeds includes a lot of useful plants. It may be that this need not be a chemical splashing clinical clean up but an opportunity of some nature preservation and education. I sometimes offer foraging nature walks myself. However this idea is tricky as a lot of these ‘weeds’ are constantly exposed to exhaust fumes, but some may be in quiet places? Hard to set up, though, as people want easy quick solutions that put fast money in their pockets … and the last thing they will think of is eco, and natural low cost health alternatives. Even so, wish there was more thought about this.
And they wonder why people get cancer – dogs sniffing on the verges too – bees wiped out – but hey it looks tidy. Dublin Council should be sued for using these sprays.
How about spending more money on combating illegal dumping in the north city centre?
Why not break the contract up into smaller sections and offer it to multiple small local companies to look after A designated area which would encourage competition and potentially get jobs for local people but this contract is only open to a small section of Big contract company’s the small companies do not have a hope even though they can offer much better value for money.
The smaller companies just don’t do brown envelopes and arse pockets
@Chris Turner:
What makes you think it would be cheaper to offer it to let’s say five small contractors rather than one big one?
Surely there would be economy’s of scale?
Brilliant! The public service offering a contract for €500,000 when they could have got it for €350,000!
@Dotty Dunleary: how so?
@Dotty Dunleary: Sound like a trumpism there
They should just legalise it man
They should just legalise is man
They should tax it and use the money to invest in infrastructure
It two cold for the muppet to come out and inspect the work
Just did a bit of research and this company had it before. Surly we should be giving contracts like this to Irish Company’s.
http://greentownenvironmental.com/
In other words a large contractor who already does work for the council , cause nobody could borrow against a risk like that
Wouldn’t it be cheaper if they just leagalized it?
What abou the whooommeless?
I don’t mind the weeds. Maybe they should see what the public wants their money spent on. I consider weeds wildflowers.
Ragwort is one of the most noxious weeds in Ireland and farmers are required by law to remove it from their land. One method recommended is during land inspection the farmer is advised to close his eyes and pull like a dog just like the rowing O’Donovan Brothers.
I thought the Garda were doing a great job of “Weed control “
Give me a decent wage and the tools and I’ll work the hours needed to do this job for a tenth of that price. I am hungry for work and I would take great pleasure doing the city a great service
Let the corpo dig the weeds out of the ground. It’s part of the road sweepers job.
Lots of those ‘weeds’ are edible and eating them would be a much more environmentally sound way of dealing with them!
About time too
Ah Jaysus half a million.. For weeds? Have they housed the homeless and fixed our hospitals yet? Another effing waste of money
That money would be better spent getting rid of rodents
Kevin How about getting out there and cutting the grass yourself. It is a community area that needs attention and you are part of the community.
Answer them better to spend it on housing
You wanna see the state of the green areas in my estate. Ploughed up by vans and cars. Not cut more than twice a year. I give up
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