Today, the Commission has endorsed a positive preliminary assessment of Ireland's second payment request for €115.5 million under the Recovery and Resilience Facility , the centrepiece of NextGenerationEU.
Following its assessment of the payment request, submitted by Ireland on 23 December 2024, the Commission has preliminarily concluded that Ireland has satisfactorily completed the 17 milestones and targets set out in the Council Implementing Decision for the second instalment.
The payment request supports six reforms and five investments that will benefit citizens and businesses in Ireland, focusing on enterprise emissions reduction, sustainable transport, carbon taxation, digitalisation in schools, businesses, and public administration, as well as ICT skills, healthcare, pensions, and housing.
Flagship measures in this payment request include:
- A reform to simplify and harmonise the supplementary pension system: Ireland has introduced legislation to expand withdrawal and transfer options and equalise the tax treatment of employer contributions across different pension schemes.
- An investment to support industry decarbonisation: Ireland is accelerating the decarbonisation of the enterprise sector with the launch of the Enterprise Emissions Reduction Investment Fund, targeting manufacturing enterprises. This fund will provide support for carbon-reducing technologies, energy monitoring systems, and research and innovation.
Next steps
The Commission has now sent its preliminary assessment of Ireland's fulfilment of the milestones and targets required for this payment to the Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), which has four weeks to deliver its opinion. The payment to Ireland can take place following the EFC's opinion, and the adoption of a payment decision by the Commission.
Background
The Irish recovery and resilience plan includes a wide range of investment and reform measures. The plan will be financed by €1.15 billion in grants.
You can find more information on Ireland's Recovery and Resilience plan on this page , which features an interactive map of projects financed by the RRF, as well as on the Recovery and Resilience Scoreboard
