{"id":484733,"date":"2026-05-14T18:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484733\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T18:34:16","slug":"mayo-firm-must-repay-e100000-after-over-claiming-eu-grant-funding-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/484733\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayo firm must repay \u20ac100,000 after over-claiming EU grant funding \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/mayo\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/mayo\/\">Co Mayo<\/a> company must repay some \u20ac100,000 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/european-union\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/european-union\/\">European Union<\/a> (EU) funding after the High Court confirmed an order directing the repayment of over-claimed grants. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Coastal Zone Services Ltd, with an address at Knockbreaga, Newport, received \u20ac549,959 in funding through grants issued by the European Commission\u2019s Research Executive Agency, a funding body for scientific research and innovation in the bloc.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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 over-claimed costs under the grant agreements, and notified the company of its intention to recover \u20ac95,340, plus \u20ac9,534 in damages. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A \u201cperiod of protracted correspondence\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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\u2019s repayment of \u20ac104,874, plus interest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">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. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">On Wednesday, barrister Theo Donnelly, appearing for the European Commission instructed by solicitor Darragh O\u2019Doherty of O\u2019Regan Little LLP, moved an application seeking the High Court\u2019s adoption of the European Commission decision as a judgment of the court. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Judge Mary Rose Gearty said she was satisfied to make the order as sought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Co Mayo company must repay some \u20ac100,000 in European Union (EU) funding after the High Court confirmed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,4893,5766,19,17,2354],"class_list":{"0":"post-484733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-european-commission","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-mayo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116574373131029994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}