Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)

I want to raise with the Minister of State today the issue of the immigrant investor fund and the difficulties faced by a number of charities as a result of delays in funding. I thank him for coming to the House today. All too often, we do not get the responsible Minister in the House. It is very welcome that he is here today to answer questions.

A charity in my home constituency of Wicklow, St. Catherine's Association, does incredible work. It is a voluntary association and has worked with children and young adults with intellectual disabilities for many years. It is an invaluable service for hundreds of families across and outside the county. It ensures that each child and young adult can meet their full potential and are fully included in and feel part of their community. The work the association does is so important.

It is trying to expand its functions. It has planned and has approval for building an adult day centre, an administrative and training unit and four respite homes. This will increase the valuable services it provides. It applied for immigrant investor programme, IIP, funding in April 2022 and, three years later, still has not received it. As the Minister of State can imagine, that is causing huge difficulties for the charity. It has done all of the work and has the plans and designs in place. Planning permission has been granted. The diggers are ready, the land is available but the association has still not received any information from the Department on when the funding will be provided.

In July last year, the association was told it could finally access the donor funds, which is quite a significant sum, in the hundreds of thousands. Despite being told that, there is still no sign of the money. The association is becoming very worried at this point. Can the Minister of State provide any clarity on the project or the entire scheme?

The scheme was closed but my understanding is that the process would happen as normal for all applications submitted prior to the scheme closing down. It seems to be a very long and protracted process. I understand the need for robust scrutiny but at some point it becomes a barrier and a stressful situation for these charities. There could be 100 charities in this situation. I know of another one in Kildare, as my colleague Deputy Aidan Farrelly has spoken to me about it. It is Sensational Kids and it is in dire straits waiting for the funding. It has proposed various business plans and it is waiting for this to happen. I hope the Minister of State can give us some clear indication of what will happen to the funds for St. Catherine's and whether they will be available soon. There are 250 children and their families relying on St. Catherine's for services. It provides a function that in most countries would be provided by the government. Because of this we should absolutely pull out all the stops to make sure it can provide the best service that it can, with all the support it requires from the State.

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