Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
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259. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the amount of extra funding and resources being allocated to his Department in preparation for the Syrian resettlement programme and other programmes dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis; the areas to which funding is being allocated by year, section of his Department and type of resource, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41805/17]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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The Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) was established by Government Decision on 10 September 2015 as a direct response to the migration crisis that had developed on the southern shores of the European Union. Under this decision, a programme office was established in my Department to oversee the operational aspects of the programme, which aims to bring in 4,000 vulnerable migrants to Ireland under two different mechanisms, refugee resettlement and asylum seeker relocation.

The IRPP deals with people from the moment they are selected for relocation or resettlement, to their transportation to Ireland and eventual settlement in the communities around the state.  Services made available to this cohort are mainstreamed and are provided by the responsible Government Departments and agencies.  The IRPP has since been merged into the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration (OPMI) which traditionally managed the resettlement of programme refugees, so that all resettlement activities now come under the one area irrespective of the origin of the client group.

Within my own Department, the specific funding made available to OPMI/IRPP covers (a) accommodation in Emergency Reception and Orientation Centres (EROCs) and (b) general programme funding to cover items such as grants to local authorities to assist resettlement in communities, interpretation, overseas missions etc. Overall, the total funding for those aspects of the Programme being operated within my Department in 2017 is in the region of €15.2 million.  This is in line with funding levels in 2016.  An estimated breakdown of funding is laid out in Table 1.

Table 1: IRPP Funding by Area 

I am satisfied that sufficient funding has been allocated to my Department to allow the OPMI to discharge their responsibilities under the IRPP.