The Irish Government and the Southern Regional Assembly welcomed the allocation of €207.8 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Southern & Eastern (S&E) Regional Programme to the HSE to support the supply of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Irish healthcare system in the S&E region in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ireland submitted a second claim to the EU Commission for support towards the costs of PPE for 2020 today.
The ERDF S&E Regional Programme, managed by the Southern Regional Assembly, is an approx. €620.1 million package of national and EU funding to support job creation, boost innovation, and help to grow the local economies in the S&E region. Availing of flexibility measures introduced at EU level, the Assembly liaised with other public bodies to set up the Health Support Scheme to direct €207.8m of much needed resources to the HSE efforts to procure the supply of essential PPE for frontline health care workers in Ireland.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr. Michael McGrath T.D., the Minister for Health, Mr. Stephen Donnelly, T.D. and the Cathaoirleach of the Southern Regional Assembly, Cllr. John Sheahan commended the collaborative efforts of a range of Irish public bodies and the European Commission to reprogramme ERDF support to address the urgent and exceptional challenges posed by Covid-19 to health care provisions in the country.
Minister Michael McGrath said: “The EU’s rapid efforts to put in place the necessary legal measures to allow Member States reallocate EU Funds was matched by the efforts of staff across a range of different public bodies to ensure that the funds could be used to source PPE and deliver it to where it was needed across the regions. I want to thank the personnel in the HSE who collaborated closely with the staff of the Southern Regional Assembly, my Department, the Department of Health, and the EU Commission on the development and roll out of the Health Support Scheme.
Securing the supply of the PPE for Ireland at the height of a global pandemic represented an unprecedented logistical exercise for the HSE, as indeed was the subsequent close and detailed administrative effort required to claim over €310.8m nationally of the associated costs in Structural Funds from the Commission”.
Minister Stephen Donnelly said: “I want to express my appreciation to the staff of HSE Health Business Services who rose to the extraordinary challenge to ensure the supply of PPE and to commend the collaborative efforts across multiple state agencies and organisations who supported them in this endeavour.
The procurement of PPE in highly competitive and volatile circumstances was, and remains, critical to protect our healthcare workers. The financial support for PPE mobilised through the ERDF made a vital contribution towards that.”
Cllr. John Sheahan said, “I want to thank the staff of the Southern Regional Assembly for their hard work in collaborating with the Department of Public Expenditure, Department of Health, the HSE and the European Commission to redirect much needed ERDF funding to support the health services in the Southern & Eastern region.
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
The Southern and Eastern (S&E) Region is the Programme area which is eligible for funding. Information on the Southern & Eastern Regional Programme can be found here.
A total of €310,839,246 in ERDF has been awarded to the HSE for the supply of COVID-19 PPE to the health service across the whole country – €207,809,246 in the S&E region and €103,030,629 in the BMW region. The S&E Regional Programme and the BMW Regional Programme are managed respectively by the Southern Regional Assembly and the Northern & Western Regional Assembly and are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund.
The funding from the two ERDF Programmes was facilitated by the EU’s Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) and the Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative Plus (CRII+) Regulations to support operations and foster crisis response capacities in the context COVID-19; and Regulation 2020/558 on specific measures to provide exceptional flexibility for the use of the European Structural and Investment Funds in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
For further information, please contact Siobhán Rudden at the Southern Regional Assembly: 086 1740155 or srudden@southernassembly.ie
