Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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95. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in view of the report by the National Youth Council of Ireland which indicates that 300,000 persons have emigrated in the past four years, if he will outline his strategy for dealing with the Irish diaspora. [23149/13]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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I welcome the report of the National Youth Council of Ireland as a contribution to the ongoing debate on engagement with our overseas communities. However, I believe that the report would have more accurately reflected the Government’s extensive assistance to emigrants had the Council sought the views of the Irish Abroad Unit of my Department during their research. Today, our Diaspora engagement policy has two key strands, namely the Emigrant Support Programme (ESP) and the Global Irish Network.

The Emigrant Support Programme provides direct assistance to Irish emigrants, both long-standing and new. Since 2004, Irish groups ranging from those providing front line services to those most at need including the elderly, isolated, vulnerable and new arrivals to those working in the culture and heritage space have received grants of over €100 million under the Programme. At present, we work with almost 200 Irish community organisations in over 20 countries and despite the economic situation, I ensured the ESP budget for 2013 - €11.6 million - remained at the same level as in 2012.

The programme provides extensive funding to organisations that act as first port of call for new emigrants, including the GAA, the London Irish Centre, the Irish Canadian Immigration Centre in Toronto and several similar groups in Australia. We also support a wide range of business and graduate networks around the world.

Among the Irish based organisations who receive ESP funding is Crosscare Migrant Project which offers pre-departure services to Irish citizens considering emigration. Crosscare also provide training to mainstream service providers on emigration and returners’ issues and work in conjunction with Irish welfare organisations abroad (many also funded by ESP) and statutory and voluntary service providers in Ireland including the probation service, Salvation Army and Safe Home.

Officials from my Department have been in contact with the National Youth Council of Ireland this week to discuss some of the findings and recommendations from their report with a view to seeing if there are areas the NYCI and the Department might be able to cooperate on in future.

The second strand of our diaspora engagement programme is our partnership with the Global Irish Network, a group of over 300 of the most influential Irish connected business figures drawn from almost 40 countries, which provide invaluable advice, facilitation and practical assistance to the Government and Irish companies. The development of the Global Irish Network has transformed the strategic relationship between Ireland and its Diaspora and I look forward to working with them again at the 3rd Global Irish Economic Forum that will take place in Dublin Castle in October.