Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the question. My Department administers a number of funding programmes addressing integration in communities on the basis of annual or multi-annual open calls for funding. The Department will also offer several funding calls of a similar nature in 2024. Each of these funding calls is run in a transparent and competitive manner, with applicants given detailed guidance on the particular criteria of each call. When assessing applications to open calls, the assessors consider the need to achieve a balanced geographical spread of activities. The assessment process is robust, with the use of an external evaluator to evaluate the process undertaken for the call to ensure that the scoring of projects is as fair and accurate as possible.

On completion of all projects, the grant recipients are required to submit full project reports. This ensures that projects achieve their stated goals in assisting with integration in communities. Each call for funding has targeted themes and will sometimes focus on special priorities, and these may change year to year so that services can be more targeted. This year, my Department has managed a number of successful integration funding calls on that basis.

The communities integration fund has been in place since 2017 and since its inception has supported over 820 projects with grant funding totally €3.82 million. This year, the fund awarded 111 organisations once-off grant payments with a total value of just over €500,000. That call ran in March this year. The international protection integration fund has a goal to support communities across Ireland so they can play a role in promoting the integration of international protection applicants. This year, 71 projects have been awarded approximately €1.2 million.

The national integration fund has the goal of supporting communities across Ireland to play a greater role in promoting integration and is open to organisations operating at regional and national level. Approximately €750,000 is committed per year, subject to the availability of funds. The minimum grant is €25,000, but the amount can go up to €200,000. In addition to these, we will announce a new grant award system under the national integration fund and the EU asylum migration and integration fund early in the new year.

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