Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In 2018, the Government has committed €11.595 million to the emigrant support programme. Through this important programme, the Government supports culturally sensitive front-line welfare services, targeted at the most vulnerable members of our overseas communities. It also supports cultural, heritage, business and capital investment projects which benefit Irish communities abroad. The current round of that particular emigrant support programme grant scheme is open for online applications until 16 February 2018. We are also continuing our work to reduce the barriers faced by citizens returning to Ireland from abroad. I commissioned an economic report on difficulties experienced by Irish people returning home which will soon be finalised and published. This will be considered by the interdepartmental committee on the Irish abroad, which works to facilitate a whole-of-Government response to issues affecting Irish people abroad. In addition, my Department has established an innovative new project to assist returning emigrant entrepreneurs, the back for business pilot programme, which is also successfully under way.

The Government is demonstrating its continued commitment to achieving a solution for our undocumented citizens in the US by proactively engaging with the Irish immigration centres and continuing our political engagement through high-level visits which will continue up to and including the St. Patrick's Day visits and onwards after that. The Coalition of Irish Immigration Centers, with the support of legal advice funded by the Department's emigrant support programme, has produced straightforward and accessible interpretation and guidance about the executive orders which has been made available through its own website and those of the embassy and consulates. Our priority continues to be to support the most vulnerable members of our community abroad, with 70% of that emigrant support programme funding going to organisations which provide front-line welfare services. Based on key themes discussed at the global Irish civic forum in May 2017, we are also seeking to encourage greater collaboration within Irish communities overseas. We are committed to supporting diversity in the diaspora to best represent the range of Irish groups and organisations that exist at home and abroad, including those that have been under-represented historically. The focus of this year's funding round is on collaborative projects which support intergenerational links and which reflect diversity and support new emigrants.

The Government is strongly committed to Ireland's overseas development co-operation programme and its place at the heart of our foreign policy. A Programme for a Partnership Government clearly articulates our commitment to the UN target of providing 0.7% of gross national income in official development assistance as economic conditions allow.The manifestation of that commitment has been the steady increase over each of the last three budgets in the funds allocated to official development assistance with just over €770 million allocated in budget 2018. Around 70% of official development assistance is channelled through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as Irish Aid with the remainder channelled through other Government Departments. Our citizens can take pride in the achievement of Irish Aid which is helping to transform lives. Ireland's response to humanitarian crises allows those in refugee circumstances to meet basic needs such as food and education. Working with such organisations as Concern and Trócaire, the EU, the UN and key partner countries in Africa, Ireland is helping to build resilient communities and societies and also helping to ensure other potential humanitarian crises are avoided. Irish civil servants, drawing on the knowledge, contacts and expertise generated by the Irish Aid programme, were instrumental in brokering agreement of the sustainable development goals at the UN, a set of targets which are intended to improve the lives of everyone on our planet by 2030.

In building and maintaining an effective development co-operation programme, my Department has developed a series of transparent criteria for funding. There are two main civil society funding streams currently operating. The first is a civil society programme grant, which is a performance-based multi-annual grant for organisations of a certain size. It allows for flexibility and predictability in addressing the needs of poorer and marginalised people. The second such funding stream is the annual civil society project fund, which allows Irish and selected international NGOs to apply for funding for projects up to three years in duration. The 2018 funding round, which saw an increase in the potential size of grants awarded closed last month and applications are being assessed.

Looking forward, the improving economic circumstances open the prospect of increases in Irish official development assistance in future budgets. To prepare for this, the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, has indicated that Ireland's development co-operation policy should be revisited to take account of the current global context and to ensure Ireland's policies are ready for the development challenges of the decade ahead. Development of this new policy will include a public consultation phase. It will also reflect the work undertaken by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence which is currently reviewing the Irish Aid programme. The new official development assistance policy should inform very ambitious but sustainable progress towards meeting that UN target for official development assistance.