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

As I mentioned, there are checks and balances. There is independent oversight of the grant process. The Deputy’s figures are based on the number of requests for funding. There is another cut-off point in terms of viable projects as well. Sometimes we get requests for funding where the projects do not add up in terms of what has been put forward. That is where the independent set of eyes comes into play. That said, we need as many resources as we can for community projects. The Ireland Against Racism fund is a good example of that. We initially only allocated €1 million to that fund. We managed to get a further €300,000. I am fighting to get as much as I can for all those strands because they all do invaluable work.

Integration is a multifaceted issue. The Department of Education has its own school areas in relation to the numbers of pupils involved, the HSE has its own metric to measure demand and the National Transport Authority has its methods of measuring demand for its services as well. They are all in the mix too and there are processes at play too.

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