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How Erasmus+ is structured in Ireland

Erasmus+ uses National Agencies — Léargas and the HEA — instead of the Managing Authority model, so nobody in the cohesion-fund chain applies here. What your grant agreement obliges you to keep: Annex 2 (“Applicable rules to eligible costs”) lists the supporting documentation that is obligatory for each activity type; the participant templates themselves are Annex 6, and for recent KA1 projects they can be generated in the Beneficiary Module. The grant agreement with the participant is compulsory for the individual mobility types Annex 2 names, and a missing one can make those mobilities ineligible; Léargas strongly recommends the rest. Final reports go through the Beneficiary Module within 60 days of the project end.

Erasmus+Reg. (EU) 2021/817 — Arts. 26 national authority, 28 supervision, 29 independent audit body, 30 controls€110m+ to Ireland 2021–2024; €26.2bn EU-wide
One programme, too many disconnected records. Delivery notes, partner decisions, expenditure, results and reporting evidence often sit in different places.

How the money reaches an organisation

Every level here can be asked for its own process map. That is the point of yours.

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European Commission — DG EAC
Sets priorities and budget under Reg. (EU) 2021/817 (€26.2bn for 2021–2027) and supervises the National Agencies: it reviews the national management and control system, sets the minimum requirements for the Agency’s controls and for the independent audit body, and takes assurance from the yearly management declaration (Arts. 28 and 30(2)).
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EACEA — European Education and Culture Executive Agency
Implements the centralised actions in direct management — Erasmus Mundus, Jean Monnet, Capacity Building, European Universities, sport partnerships. It has no role in Irish decentralised grants and does not oversee or audit the National Agencies.
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DFHERIS — Irish National Authority
Designates the National Agencies and the independent audit body, monitors and supervises them (Arts. 26 and 29), and is accountable to the Oireachtas through Vote 45.
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Léargas — National Agency (schools · VET · adult ed · youth · sport)
Runs the calls, awards the grants, does the primary checks on your project and signs a yearly management declaration for its share of the programme. Léargas is a company limited by guarantee and a non-commercial state body: its statutory auditors are its own, and for Erasmus+ the independent audit body below.
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HEA — National Agency (higher education)
Funds every Irish college holding an Erasmus Charter — 34 of them — for mobility and cooperation. Unlike Léargas, the HEA is itself audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General as a public body.
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
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Your organisation — schools · ETBs · universities · NGOs · youth organisations
Signs the grant agreement, keeps the documentation Annex 2 requires for each activity type, holds the participant agreements from Annex 6, and files the final report in the Beneficiary Module.
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Participants
Students, apprentices, further-education learners, school pupils, young people, adult learners and staff. In Erasmus+ language your organisation is the beneficiary; these are the people the mobility is for.
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Audit Chain
Built upward from your project. Your records → the National Agency’s primary checks on beneficiaries (Art. 30(3)) → the Agency’s yearly management declaration → the independent audit body designated by DFHERIS, which issues the audit opinion on that declaration and forms the basis of the Commission’s assurance (Art. 29) → DFHERIS as National Authority monitors and supervises → the European Commission, DG EAC. Alongside, not above: the European Court of Auditors and OLAF (Ireland is outside the EPPO), and the Comptroller and Auditor General, which audits Vote 45 and the HEA — but not Léargas, which has its own statutory auditors.

Process maps under this programme

Where this came from

Human reviewed2026-09-21Automatically checked2026-10-12Current source statusAutomatic baseline required

Read against the source on 2026-09-21. This is the human-reviewed version.

What that check changed: Reviewed and updated on 21 September 2026 from primary sources; 17 sources are listed below. EACEA implements the centralised actions in direct management, and supervision of the National Agencies belongs to the European Commission under Articles 28 and 30(2). Léargas is a company limited by guarantee with its own statutory auditors; the Comptroller and Auditor General audits Vote 45 and the HEA. The chain reads upward from your own project and includes the independent audit body designated by DFHERIS under Article 26(4), whose opinion on the National Agency’s yearly management declaration carries the Commission’s assurance under Article 29. The mobility templates are Annex 6 of the grant agreement; Annex 2 is the rules on eligible costs, and lists the documentation each activity type requires. Only the participant grant agreement is compulsory, for the activity types Annex 2 names.