Allocation/pre-financing amount: €989 million in grants
Plan length: 30 pages
Submission date: May 2021
Format of plan
Three priorities
- Priority 1: Advancing the Green Transition
- Priority 2: Accelerating and Expanding Digital Reforms and Transformation
- Priority 3: Social and Economic Recovery and Job Creation
Those three priorities are implemented by 25 measures, including 16 investments and 9 reforms.
Summary of the plan
Forecast to miss its target for cumulative emissions for the period 2013 to 2020 by approximately 5% (page 4 of the plan), Ireland will dedicate a large share of its grant to the advancement of the green transition with €518 million. This component is crucial for Ireland if it wants to address the climate and biodiversity crises threatening the planet. Yet, the plan mainly highlights the potential of these investments to tackle unemployment and stimulate economic growth thanks to the digitalisation of society. Indeed, as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath said in June 2021: “With an investment of €915 million in the current round of RRF from the EU, the National Recovery and Resilience Plan marks a key milestone in our path to economic recovery from Covid-19. The Plan will enable us to move beyond the pandemic and to invest in the future in key areas such as climate change and a digital transition. It will also help us to mend some of the scarring impacts of the pandemic and help people get back to work”. In fact, most of the measures seem to address the social and economic deficit exacerbated by the pandemic rather than levelling up Ireland with its climate objectives.
Youth Dimension
At first sight, it might be difficult to spot how the Irish plan will address the sixth pillar of the RRF “Policies for the next generation, children and the youth, such as education and skills”. Though, the plan stresses the importance of education, especially digital education that needs to be combined with social challenges.
According to the data for the European Pillar for Social Rights indicators, “53% of the Irish population between the ages of 16 and 74 have basic or above basic digital skills, which is below the European average” (p. 14). Youth unemployment represents a major issue as it increased from 12.5% in 2019 to 16.8% in Q4 of 2020 while the average in all age groups was 7.2%. Moreover, the employment gap between people with and without disabilities, 40.3 percentage points, is one of the highest in the EU.
The plan focuses on the digitalisation side of the transition and the development of future-proof skills to help reduce unemployment rate and address regional disparities thanks to digital learning (projects aiming to provide Digital Infrastructure and Funding to Schools for €64 million and the Technological Universities Transformation Fund, p.23; 26-27).
The Irish plan appears to mainly focus on digital skills and not necessarily address regional disparities. The link between the green transition and the next generation is not sufficiently developed as the green transition is based on energy, building renovation, restoration of peatlands, but the plan does not introduce classes on climate issues for example. Hence, Youth is mostly thought through education and employment and is not connected to the green transition.
