The European Commission has given a positive assessment of Ireland’s fourth request for a €249 million payment under the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, the main funding tool within the NextGenerationEU post-pandemic programme.
Ireland’s request covered five milestones and three targets that the Commission found had been completed satisfactorily, the Commission said in a statement on Wednesday.
The measures linked to the payment include projects and reforms in railway electrification, e-health, public administration, higher education, re-skilling and up-skilling, and renewable energy deployment.
Flagship elements include progress towards connecting 5GW of offshore wind to Ireland’s electricity grid by 2030, alongside the adoption of the South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan — described as the country’s first strategic framework for sustainable offshore energy development.
Another measure is a new integrated financial management system for healthcare that is now live across 46 hospitals and wider healthcare infrastructure, which brings procurement into a single system and provides price transparency.
Ireland has also trained more than 85,000 people through programmes including the SOLAS Green Skills Action Programme and Skills to Compete, covering areas such as information and communication technologies, coding, and sustainable construction.
What happens next
The Commission has sent its preliminary assessment to the Council’s Economic and Financial Committee for an opinion, and the payment can be made after that opinion and the Commission’s adoption of a payment decision.
Ireland submitted the payment request on 10 February 2026, and its recovery and resilience plan is financed by €1.15 billion in grants.
