This project will provide technical support to Irish authorities for implementing Milestones 108 and 109 of Ireland's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). Milestone 108 establishes a repository system for monitoring the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). Milestone 109 is a workload analysis to confirm the administrative capacities of the Implementing and Audit bodies within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER). Background Ireland is one of the EU Member States that has submitted its recovery and resilience plan to the European Commission (EC), to be funded by the RRF - the largest component of Next Generation EU (NGEU). This is the European Union’s landmark temporary instrument for recovery from the economic and social damage that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, while at the same time reinforcing the green transition and digital transformation of member states.

The overall objective of Ireland’s NRRP is to contribute to a sustainable, equitable, green, and digital recovery effort, in a manner that complements and supports the Government’s broader recovery efforts. Ireland’s NRRP, consisting of three components, will do this through a set of 16 investments and 9 reform commitments, to a total value of €915 million, which Ireland will receive in grants from RRF. These will be used to support investments between now and mid-2026. Ireland’s NRRP includes 74 milestones and 35 targets. Ireland, as other EU countries, needs to report milestones and targets achieved to the EC on a timely basis, in order to receive payment. In addition to this, the EC will assess Ireland's internal control systems to prevent, detect and correct corruption, fraud, conflicts of interest and double funding.

The primary goal is to support the Implementing Body within DPER in achieving milestones 108 and 109 of Ireland’s NRRP, which will include:

• Identification of data/information needs, recommendations for their collection and design of data exchange channels
• Support for performance of auditing and control of the NRRP implementation through the design of a clear timeline of activities and corresponding dataflows
• Improved coordination and project management methods for the relevant authorities
• Clear guidelines for the manner and content of reporting to the EC and at national level
• Upskilling personnel of the relevant institutions to be able to successfully take part in NRRP implementation

Upon completion of this project, Ireland will be ready for preparing the first payment request to be submitted to EC by the end of Q2 2022, and to pursue the activities related to the next NRRP instalments.

• Organize and conduct the kick-off meeting
• Produce an inception report including a visual contract summary
• Review the milestones/targets of Ireland's RRP
• Conduct an “As-Is” analysis on monitoring processes/systems
• Design a “To-Be” situation of the monitoring mechanisms
• Prepare a transition plan from the “As-Is” to the “To-Be” situation related to the monitoring processes/systems
• Draft a report on the recommendations for enhancing the monitoring mechanisms
• Conduct an “As-Is” analysis on control processes
• Design a “To-Be” situation of the control processes
• Prepare a transition plan from the “As-Is” to the “To-Be” situation related to the control processes
• Draft a report on the recommendations for enhancing the control frameworks
• Conduct an “As-Is” analysis on audit processes
• Design a “To-Be” situation of the audit processes
• Prepare a transition plan from the “As-Is” to the “To-Be” situation related to the audit processes
• Draft a report on the recommendations for enhancing the audit frameworks
• Conduct an “As-Is” analysis on reporting processes
• Design a “To-Be” situation of the reporting processes
• Prepare a transition plan from the “As-Is” to the “To-Be” situation of the reporting processes
• Draft a report on the recommendations for enhancing the reporting mechanisms
• Draft a training needs assessment (TNA) report
• Provide tailored capacity building
• Produce a summary report for each capacity building activity
• Draft a final report

• “Project summary”