How ESF+ is structured in Ireland
Ireland’s ESF+ programme is called Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training (EIST), and it runs in five priorities: employment; skills and lifelong learning; social inclusion; social innovation; and assistance to the most deprived. Ireland must put at least 25% of its EU ESF+ allocation into social inclusion, at least 5% into tackling child poverty and at least 3% into help for the most deprived. Money reaches you as reimbursement of checked spending, not as an advance: the EU pays 40% of a claim in the Southern and Eastern & Midland regions and 60% in the North-Western region, up to 95% on social innovation; the Irish Exchequer pays the rest. Which body you report to depends on which action you deliver.
ESF+ — the national programmeReg. (EU) 2021/1057 · CPR Reg. (EU) 2021/1060€1.08bn (2021–2027): €508m EU + €573m Ireland
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.
European Commission — DG Employment
Allocates €508m ESF+ to Ireland under Reg. (EU) 2021/1057, approves the EIST programme, and accepts the annual accounts the Managing Authority submits
DFHERIS — ESF+ Managing Authority and Accounting Function
Dept. of Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. Manages the EIST programme, runs management verifications with the Intermediate Bodies (CPR Art. 74), draws up the accounts (Art. 76) and submits payment applications to the Commission.
Intermediate Bodies — the department or agency responsible for each action
Named in writing under CPR Art. 71(3): SOLAS for ETB Training, the Dept. of Social Protection for JobsPlus and Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, the Dept. of Rural & Community Development & the Gaeltacht for SICAP (with Pobal as its agent), the HEA for higher-education actions. Not every action has one — some national bodies report straight to the Managing Authority.
ETBs (16) · higher education institutions · Skillnet Business Networks
Organise and deliver training and education at local and regional level under the five priorities
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
Beneficiaries — the organisations that deliver and claim
ETBs and FET providers, Local Development Companies delivering SICAP, Youthreach centres, youth justice projects, higher education institutions, Skillnet networks, and the charities in the food and basic-material support network. In ESF+ language your organisation is the beneficiary: it signs the agreement, keeps participant records and declares the expenditure.
Participants
The people the actions are for: jobseekers and the long-term unemployed, but also learners from disadvantaged backgrounds, low-skilled workers, young people, migrants, families and people in food poverty
Audit Chain
Your records → the Intermediate Body checks the claim (management verifications, CPR Art. 74) → DFHERIS as Managing Authority and Accounting Function draws up the accounts (Art. 76) and claims from the Commission → the ESF+ Audit Authority — the Internal & EU Audit Unit of the Department of Education and Youth — audits the system and a sample independently (Art. 77) → the European Commission accepts the accounts. Alongside, not above: the Comptroller and Auditor General audits Irish public money, the European Court of Auditors audits the EU budget, and OLAF investigates suspected fraud.
Process maps under this programme
Where this came from
Human reviewed2026-09-07Automatically checkedMonitoring pendingCurrent source statusAutomatic baseline required
- Regulation (EU) 2021/1057 (ESF+) — Art. 7 thematic concentration, Art. 13 social innovation co-financing, Annex I common indicators — Official Journal of the European UnionA · Governing source checkedAuto: review needed
- Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 (Common Provisions Regulation) — Art. 71 programme authorities and intermediate bodies, Art. 74 management verifications, Art. 76 accounting function, Art. 77 audit authority — Official Journal of the European UnionA · Governing source checkedAuto: pending
- Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training (EIST) Programme 2021–2027 — five priorities and their actions, €1.08bn total, €508m EU and €573m Government of Ireland, 40% and 60% co-financing by region — ESF+ Managing Authority (DFHERIS), via EU Funds IrelandB · Official operational guidance checkedAuto: pending
- ESF+ Regulations and Guidance — Ireland must spend 25% on social inclusion, 5% on child poverty and 3% on material deprivation; up to 95% EU co-finance for social innovation — ESF+ Managing Authority (DFHERIS), via EU Funds IrelandB · Official operational guidance checkedAuto: pending
- SICAP Programme Requirements 2024–2028, Section 11 — the ESF+ Management and Control Cascade: beneficiary, Intermediate Body, Managing Authority, Accounting Function, Audit Authority — Pobal, for the Department of Rural and Community Development, February 2024A · Governing source checkedAuto: pending
- Internal and EU Audit Unit — ESF+ Audit Authority, auditing under Art. 77 of Reg. (EU) 2021/1060 — Department of Education and YouthB · Official operational guidance checkedAuto: pending
Read against the source on 2026-09-07. This is the human-reviewed version.
What that check changed: Checked again on 7 September 2026 against the Managing Authority’s own pages and the SICAP Programme Requirements, after an independent audit. The audit chain was wrong in the same way as ERDF’s and SICAP’s: it ran the European Court of Auditors, OLAF and the Comptroller and Auditor General as tiers of a ladder, left out the European Commission and the accounting function, and placed the Audit Authority under OLAF. It is now the CPR cascade — management verifications, accounts, independent audit, Commission — with the national and EU auditors alongside. Three other things were wrong: Pobal and Skillnet were listed as Intermediate Bodies (the body for SICAP is the Department; Pobal is its agent, and not every action has an Intermediate Body at all); Community Employment was named as an ESF+ action, which it is not — the five priorities and their actions are now listed as the programme publishes them; and the people supported were called “final beneficiaries”, when in ESF+ the beneficiary is the organisation that claims and the people are participants. The 5% child-poverty floor was written as if it might not apply to Ireland; the Managing Authority states that it does. The programme also now says how money actually arrives: reimbursement of checked spending at 40% or 60% EU, not an advance.