Bid for £1.6m to help Ebrington project

A BID for £1.6m in extra capital funding to ease ongoing pressures at the Londonderry Ebrington site has been submitted to the Department of Finance (DfP) as part of the September budget monitoring round.

The Office of First and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) has applied for the finance alongside a bid for European Union match funding of 1m.

Mrs Jackie Kerr of OFMDFM last week told the Stormont Committee overseeing the Department that in addition to the additional capital funding it would also be seeking the transfer of funds from a Crumlin Road jail project to help ease pressures on the Ebrington project.

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At an earlier Committee meeting on September 8 Mrs Kerr said it was important momentum was maintained on sites, which are “politically and strategically significant” such as Ebrington towards which 5.4million has already been committed for a recently signed parade ground contract.

Last week Mrs Kerr was briefing the OFMDFM Committee on the Department’s proposals for the September monitoring round.

She explained: “There is a capital bid of 1.6 million for the Ebrington and Maze/Long Kesh projects, and a bid for EU match funding of just over 1 million.

“The allocation of European funding was determined at the outset of the Budget period, based on best estimates at that time. A normalisation process goes on throughout the Budget period as the actual departmental requirements become clearer.”

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She went on to explain that OFMDFM were seeking a transfer of funds from the Crumlin Road jail project to the Ebrington project.

She told the Committee: “There is a proactive management action proposing a transfer of 0.5 million from the Crumlin Road jail project to meet pressures within the Maze/Long Kesh and Ebrington projects and a reclassification of European funding, originally allocated as capital, that is actually required for a resource pressure rather than a capital pressure.”

The proposal to transfer funds from another project to the Ebrington scheme follows a similar proposal in June when the Executive approved a reallocation of 4.2 million in surplus capital funding from the Crumlin Road jail to address pressures at the Maze/Long Kesh and Ebrington sites.

Mrs Kerr told the Committee how 2.2 million of that money went towards the Ebrington project. A June bid for additional capital for the Ebrington site was unsuccessful.

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