Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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538. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the rationale for the decision to stop funding a centre (details supplied); the amount of funding provided by his Department to this service each year since its establishment; the similar services that are also having their funding withdrawn; and his plans to reconsider the matter and to reinstate funding to the centre. [15602/18]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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The Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration (OPMI), an Office of my Department, allocates public funding for migrant integration projects on the basis of competitive selection processes carried out in a fair, open and transparent way.  This gives a wide range of community and voluntary organisations the opportunity to bid for government funding for projects to support the integration of migrants in our communities.

In 2017 an open selection process was conducted to allocate funding under the National Funding Programme to Promote the Integration of Immigrants. All eligible applications received were assessed by OPMI staff against the published selection criteria. The funding recommendations were reviewed by an assessment committee that included external representatives. In all, 15 projects were selected to receive funding from a total of 73 eligible applications.

An application was received from South Dublin County Partnership which included a request for funding to contribute to the cost of running the centre referred to by the Deputy.  Regrettably, this application was unsuccessful in what was a highly competitive process.

My officials advise that at a subsequent meeting held with the Office for Promotion of Migrant Integration in November last year, representatives from South Dublin County Partnership outlined their concerns for the future of the centre in Clondalkin.  Officials of my Department proposed a number of alternative options to secure funding.  They invited the representatives of South Dublin County Partnership to consider these options further and to submit proposals.  However, no such proposals have been forthcoming to date.  These options remain open to the organisation.

The National Funding to Promote the Integration of Immigrants is one of a number of funding programmes, administered by or on behalf of my Department to support migrant integration. We also provide funding from the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund and the Communities Integration Fund. South County Dublin Partnership is in receipt of integration project funding under both these funds. In 2017 the Partnership was awarded a grant of €150,000 over three years under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

The Migrant Integration Strategy, which was published in February 2017, contains a number of very specific actions under the theme of promoting intercultural awareness and combating racism and xenophobia.  These actions, which are being implemented, include ensuring appropriate migrant representation on local joint-policing committees, implementing victim-focused policing of racist crime, rapid removal of racist graffiti and the strengthening of legislation dealing with hate crime.

The Migrant Integration Strategy also makes provision for the continuation of funding through OPMI for integration related projects at community level up to and including 2020.  Future "Calls for Proposals" under all integration funding programmes will be advertised on my Department's website, the Office for the Promotion of Migrant Integration and the EU Funds Unit of the Department.  South Dublin County Partnership is entitled to apply as appropriate.