Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

175. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if funding is provided for integration projects undertaken with primary or secondary schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53715/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In terms of specific project funding, €370,000 for a Migrant Integration project, run by City of Dublin Education and Training Board (CDETB), was approved by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government in the 2016 Dormant Accounts Action Plan, at the request of my Department.

This year, in its submission to the Department for Rural and Community Development, my Department again proposed the inclusion of funding for this CDETB Migrant Integration project in the Dormant Accounts Scheme. €105,000 has been approved by the Minister for Rural and Community Development for disbursement from the Scheme in the 2020 Dormant Accounts Action Plan. The funding for this project is reimbursed to my Department from the Dormant Accounts Scheme.

The CDETB Migrant Integration project promotes and supports the integration of newcomer migrant students, who do not have English as a first language, through a range of educational and intercultural measures. The overall objective of this project is to enable these students to access the curriculum, fully engage in post-primary education, and to integrate into school and life in Ireland.

In addition, under my Department's School Excellence Fund (SEF) - DEIS which is designed to ensure that innovative approaches and proposals to tackle educational disadvantage are supported and rewarded, funding of €51,000 was approved by my Department in 2018 to a cluster of schools in Balbriggan for a three year project entitled “English as an Additional Language”. Specifically the schools will focus on the acquisition of higher level language skills for students to fulfil their potential at both primary and post-primary level.

Other funding schemes

Other funding schemes for integration projects include funding available under the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund which was established by the European Commission and managed by the Department of Justice and Equality.