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How ERDF reaches a local authority project

This is the same money as the ERDF entry, seen from a council’s side of the table. Ireland runs ERDF mainly as two regional programmes, with the Assemblies as Managing Authorities; PEACEPLUS also carries it. Councils receive ERDF mainly through the town and urban priorities — schemes such as THRIVE, Decarbonising Zones and social housing renovation — while the research and innovation priority runs through Enterprise Ireland, Research Ireland and the HEA. Which programme you sit in is decided by geography, and it sets how much of the money behind your call is EU money — not what your council must contribute, which the call sets.

ERDF — via a local authority schemeReg. (EU) 2021/1058 · CPR Reg. (EU) 2021/1060Set by the scheme and your grant agreement — the two regional ERDF programmes behind it total €880.8m (€395.7m from the EU); see the ERDF entry
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 REGIO
Approves both regional programmes and clears the accounts. EU contribution across the two: €395.7m of the €880.8m total; the rest is Government of Ireland money.
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Managing Authorities — Northern & Western Regional Assembly · Southern Regional Assembly
Northern & Western: €217.1m, a transition region, so the EU pays 60% of the programme. Southern, Eastern & Midland: €663.7m, two more developed regions, so the EU pays 40%. The Eastern & Midland Regional Assembly runs no ERDF programme — it is the Managing Authority for the Just Transition Fund.
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Scheme owner — the Assembly, or an Intermediate Body
For town and urban schemes the Assembly runs the call itself. Under the research and innovation priority the calls are delegated to Enterprise Ireland, Research Ireland or the Higher Education Authority. The body that published your call assesses it, signs with you and verifies claims; a Department may pay.
👉 Your organisation sits at this level
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Your local authority — the beneficiary on the grant agreement
Signs the agreement, procures the works under national and EU procurement law, spends first, claims after, keeps the file 5 years. Ineligible cost is the commonest reason money is taken back (ECA 2024: 49%), then procurement and State aid (23%).
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The town and the people who use what is built
Residents of the regenerated street, users of the retrofitted building, the community the facility serves. In CPR language the beneficiary is the council; these are the people the money is for.
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Audit Chain
Built upward from the council’s own file. Your invoices, proof of payment and procurement records → management verifications by the Assembly or the Intermediate Body, risk-based, administrative on claims and on the spot (CPR Art. 74), finished before the annual accounts go to the Commission → the ERDF Audit Authority, the Internal & EU Audit Unit of the Department of Public Expenditure, audits systems, operations and accounts independently (Art. 77) → the European Commission accepts the accounts. Alongside, not above: the Local Government Audit Service audits the Regional Assemblies and your own council, the Comptroller and Auditor General audits the Department and the state-body Intermediate Bodies, the European Court of Auditors audits the EU budget, and OLAF investigates suspected fraud.

Process maps under this programme

Where this came from

Human reviewed2026-09-21Automatically checked2026-10-12Current source statusAutomatic check incomplete — human check requiredThe source could not be reached automatically. Published content has been preserved for human checking.

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, in line with the main ERDF entry; 23 sources are listed below. Ireland runs ERDF as two regional programmes and the Regional Assemblies are the Managing Authorities. The money is taken from the Commission’s own programme records: €880.8m across the two programmes, €395.7m of it from the EU. The co-financing rate is the split between EU and Exchequer money inside the programme, not a share the council has to find itself. The control chain runs upward from the council’s own file, and the Local Government Audit Service audits both the Regional Assemblies and the council.