Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

I appreciate the increase in funding in recent years, but this is only a small amount. What plans are in place to provide additional funding beyond this year? The Minister indicated that he hopes to make further announcements shortly. Is it proposed to provide a substantial increase in funding so that the many groups with which I and others met can ensure that they can properly address the major issues facing Irish emigrants in their 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s who are living in squalor and who are isolated? Some of these people wish to return to Ireland, while others are seeking an improvement in their quality of life. Are there plans to deliver more packages of the sort that were previously in place in order to encourage or help some Irish emigrants to return home? When I met representatives of the Irish emigrant groups last year, one of the issues put to me was people's desire to return home to the small communities from which they came and perhaps live out the rest of their lives there. These people subsidised the economy when times were hard in this country.

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