Co Mayo firm to repay €100,000 in grant funding

High Court reporters

A Co Mayo company must repay some €100,000 in European Union (EU) funding after the High Court confirmed an order directing the repayment of overclaimed grants.

Coastal Zone Services Ltd, with an address at Knockbreaga, Newport, received €549,959 in funding through grants issued by the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency, a funding body for scientific research and innovation in the bloc.

According to court documents, Coastal Zone Services received the money as a beneficiary of two consortiums that negotiated separate grant agreements with the Research Executive Agency in 2011 and 2012. The consortiums were engaged in marine research projects.

In 2016, the Research Executive Agency carried out a financial audit of Coastal Zone Services in respect of the grant money. The agency later determined Coastal Zone Services had overclaimed costs under the grant agreements, and notified the company of its intention to recover €95,340, plus €9,534 in damages.

A “period of protracted correspondence” between the Research Executive Agency and Coastal Zone Services ensued. The company asked for time to furnish evidence purporting to vouch for costs claimed under the grant agreements, but ultimately, no supporting evidence was provided, according to court papers.

When Coastal Zone Services did not comply with formal repayment requests, the European Commission formally adopted the decision ordering the repayments, under rules mandating EU decisions relating to pecuniary obligations are enforced in member states. The decision ordered Coastal Zone Services’s repayment of €104,874, plus interest.

This decision was confirmed by the Government under a statutory instrument dealing with the enforcement of EU judgments, the European Communities (Enforcement of Community Judgments, Orders and Decision) Regulations 2007.

On Wednesday, barrister Theo Donnelly, appearing for the European Commission instructed by solicitor Darragh O’Doherty of O’Regan Little LLP, moved an application seeking the High Court’s adoption of the European Commission decision as a judgment of the court.

Judge Mary Rose Gearty said she was satisfied to make the order as sought.