Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Deputy. I appreciated that. Regarding the expenses of Irish Aid and development, it is all contained in the Irish Aid report. I am more than happy to furnish her and the committee with the most up-to-date report, which will give a breakdown of exactly where we spend our money through our large-scale international Irish NGOs, embassies and partnerships with the United Nations under both thematic and geographic themes. Irish Aid has approximately 13 priority countries. All bar three are in sub-Saharan Africa, and Ukraine is parallel to that.

The emigrant support programme is worth approximately €16.5 million. We have a specific scheme then with €7 million with the global games development through our GAA. We have found the GAA is the unofficial embassy for people in many communities. It is important to stress exactly where the emigrant support programme goes to. It has been around for 20-odd years, and it is targeted at Irish who perhaps left in very different and far more difficult circumstances, probably a generation before the Deputy’s and mine. They left an extremely poor and socially repressed country to find a new life. Unfortunately, many of them are now of an age where they face very real health problems and other vulnerabilities. There is a massive cohort of them and it is important to stress this. A large number of Irish people in Great Britain who receive support from our emigrant support programme are survivors of institutional abuse. They are central to our work. They are perhaps in far worse physical and mental health than others and, to be frank, our debt to them is far greater.

Regarding the work on driving licences, we currently have an agreement with the states of Australia and seven of the ten Canadian provinces. Work is under way to get recognition on a state-by-state basis in the USA. The issue is making sure that the standards of the states awarding the licences are up to scratch so it does not diminish those on the road. It is something I have been tasked with by the Tánaiste. Another thing is we have seen more companies offering car insurance to returning migrants. I will not name one in particular, but that is a specific product.

There is ongoing work on PRSI with our friends in the Department of Social Protection, and I am very aware of it.

I will use this last minute to answer Senator Higgins’s question on a very real concern among the Irish abroad, particularly in the United States, due to political changes. Next week, I will meet with a number of Irish pastoral groups in Boston and Philadelphia to discuss that. We have to be very careful when we are dealing with the undocumented. There was a potential reciprocal agreement four or five years ago, but it was vetoed then by a still serving Senator from Arkansas, unfortunately. Much work was done in the Upper House, as Senator Higgins will recall, led by the late, great Billy Lawless, who I fondly miss. There are also a few other examples of where we are working with those particularly from the LGBT+ community who have raised concerns through our consular network. We have nine diplomatic missions in the United States. We work very closely with various not-for-profit and benevolent organisations to support the Irish in the US.