The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Regional Programmes in Ireland have awarded €286.5 million to the Health Service Executive (HSE) to support the cost of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies to the Irish healthcare system in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two ERDF Regional Programmes responded to the pandemic by developing the Health Support Scheme which funds the HSE’s drive to secure and sustain continuity of access and supply of essential PPE for the health services in Ireland. HSE Health Business Services has led the extraordinary challenge to ensure the supply of PPE through a multi-agency approach with regulatory support from the Health Products Regulatory Authority.

ERDF funding of €286,580,931 has been awarded to the HSE from the Border, Midlands & Western (BMW) Regional Operational Programme (€97,415,632), and the Southern & Eastern (S&E) Regional Operational Programme (€189,165,299) for the supply of COVID-19 PPE to the health service in the S&E and BMW regions.

The funding from the ERDF Programmes was facilitated by the EU CRII and CRII Plus Regulations to support operations and foster crisis response capacities in the context COVID-19; and Reg 2020/558 to support exceptional measures for use of European Structural Investment Funds for Covid-related support.

The S&E Regional Operational Programme and the BMW Regional Operational Programme are managed respectively by the Southern Regional Assembly and the Northern & Western Regional Assembly and are co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.