Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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1193. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the status of the operation on community sponsorship Ireland stream for resettling refugees as established in 2018; and the breakdown of refugees who have been resettled under this initiative by county in each of the years 2019, 2020 and to date in 2020, in tabular form. [39175/21]

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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1194. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if there is a plan to expand or incentivise the community sponsorship Ireland model taking into consideration the success of its counterpart in Canada; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39176/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1193 and 1194 together.

I wish to confirm the following to the Deputy in relation to the operation of Community Sponsorship Ireland since its establishment:

The Irish State launched a pilot Community Sponsorship Ireland model in December 2018 as an alternative way to resettle refugees in Ireland. Following this successful pilot, the Irish Government launched the initiative nationally as a mainstream project in 2019.

- To date, 55 individuals (13 families) have settled into 13 different rural and urban communities under this model.

- The 13 Community Sponsorship Ireland groups are located across 5 different counties.

- 4 New Community Sponsorships groups arrived in Q2 this year.

- A further 4 families have been identified for arrival in Q3 following a selection ission in Greece.

- A further 11 Community Sponsorship Groups are currently in formation in counties across Ireland.

- New group formations are expanding into new areas including Wicklow, Kerry, Wexford and Mayo in addition to new additional groups establishing in Dublin, Cork, Meath and Kildare.

In terms of plans to expand the Community Sponsorship Ireland model taking into consideration the success of its counterpart in Canada I can confirm that the Irish model has been developed in cooperation with the Government ofIreland, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and civil society organisations such as UNHCR, the Irish Red Cross, NASC, Irish Refugee Council and Amnesty International Ireland. 

In August 2020, the Irish Refugee Protection Programme (IRPP) issued a call for applications for funding under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) 2014-2020 in August 2020. A sum of €770,000 in funding was made available for the IRPP to develop several Regional Support Organisations (RSOs) to further develop the Community Sponsorship programme in Ireland.

At the start of 2021, 4 RSOs entered into formal agreements with IRPP, with responsibility for recruitment, support, coordination and training of Community Sponsorship groups across 7 areas:

- Area 1: Dublin /Louth

- Area 2: Cork /Kerry

- Area 3: Limerick /Tipperary/Clare

- Area 4: Meath/ Kildare /Wicklow/Westmeath /Offaly

- Area 5: Waterford /Wexford /Kilkenny/Carlow/Laois

- Area 6: Galway /Mayo/Longford /Roscommon

-Area 7: Leitrim /Sligo /Cavan /Donegal/Monaghan

The RSOs will play an active role in promoting community sponsorship at local levels. The identification and engagement of Community Sponsorship groups will also be promoted at a national level through the activities of the IRPP.