New €24m fund to support Just Transition in the midlands

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications Eamon Ryan has announced a further €24 million for the Midlands region under Ireland’s EU Just Transition Fund (JTF) programme, to provide targeted funding to projects that invest in the development of local communities, create employment and help diversify the local economy.

Funding of up to €1 million is available for local projects, with up to €5 million on offer for strategic, regional flagship projects

The new funding, provided under a new Local and Regional Economic Strategies Support Scheme, can help to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon future by boosting communities and the economic fabric of the wider Midlands.

Welcoming the announcement, Offaly based Minister Pippa Hackett said “The opening of this EU Just Transition Fund forms part of the roll out of a wide programme of up to €169m. I have spoken on a number of occasions with Offaly County Council and I know they and the other local authorities in the region have been working hard to have projects ready for this fund, both at the smaller and larger scale. It is an exciting time to be in the Midlands as we transition to a low carbon future and I continue to see the many possibilities of this new basis to our regional economy. We need a leg up, of course, and that is exactly what this fund and the many other elements of the EU Just Transition programme and wider Government supports are about.”

Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen also welcomed the announcement of €24 million in new funding for the Midlands region under Ireland’s EU Just Transition Fund (JTF) programme

A wide range of locally-defined projects are possible under this call, he said, and could include investments in infrastructure that contribute, at a local level, to improving the business and consumer environment or the expansion of existing, or the implementation of new education, or training or skills programmes by relevant educational institutions within the Midlands, for example.

Deputy Cowen said: “Nobody should be left behind in the climate transition and this scheme will deliver resources to enable locally grown ideas in Offaly to become a reality. Fianna Fáil in Government will continue to work hard to support communities and workers in the midlands, boosting the region as a great place to live, work and visit.”

Funding of up to €1 million is available for projects to implement ‘Local Economic and Community Plans’ within the Just Transition territory. At the regional level, up to €5 million is available to support strategic flagship projects in alignment with ‘Regional Enterprise Plans’ in the territory. This could include the expansion of education, training or skills programmes or investments in heritage infrastructure across the region, for example.

This scheme is co-funded by the Government and the European Union through the EU Just Transition Fund programme. This programme supports projects in the EU Just Transition Fund Territory, consisting of Laois, Longford, Offaly, Westmeath, Roscommon and the Municipal Districts of Ballinasloe (Co Galway), Athy, Clane-Maynooth, (Co Kildare) and Carrick-on-Suir and Thurles (Co Tipperary).

In this first call, funding of up to €15 million will be available, through Pobal, to projects aligned with the eight Local Economic and Community Plans in the Territory, with a further €9 million available for strategic flagship projects aligned with the relevant Regional Enterprise Plans.

A wide range of locally-defined projects are possible under this call, provided that there is alignment with the objectives of the EU Just Transition Fund, and with the Local Economic and Community Plans and the Regional Enterprise Plans, i.e.:

investments in infrastructure that contribute, at a local level, to improving the business and consumer environment;

the expansion of existing, or the implementation of new education, training or skills programmes by relevant educational institutions within the region;

investments in heritage infrastructure in the region to improve existing built or natural heritage sites, or re-purpose sites from industrial use; and

the delivery of education, skills, and training and the associated social care infrastructure, for the purposes of supporting participation in skills training and employment.

This scheme is being administered by Pobal on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Eastern and Midland Regional Assembly.

Further information on the how to apply for funding is available at http://www.pobal.ie/programmes/eujtf-lecp-rep/.