Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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640. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth if a reply will issue to a person (details supplied) in regard to consideration for the inclusion of his or her daughter in the Irish refugee protection programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51220/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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As the Deputy may be aware, Refugee Resettlement is carried out under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and involves the selection and transfer of refugees from a State in which they have sought protection to a third State that has agreed to admit them as refugees with permanent residence status. Resettlement is also an international responsibility sharing mechanism, allowing States to offer protection to refugees outside their territories, and reduce problems impacting the countries and regions where refugees flee to en-masse. States voluntarily offer resettlement places as a tangible expression of international solidarity.

Refugees are proposed to Ireland for resettlement by UNHCR on the basis of vulnerability. Interviews are scheduled on the basis of these proposals. There is limited opportunity for a person to be admitted as a programme refugee other than where proposed by the UNHCR.