Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1076. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the total budget in his Department for the Traveller and Roma communities and the Traveller unit and considering the scale of the challenges across the country for the Traveller and Roma communities; the way his Department made the decision to allocate only a 3% increase; and the percentage increase in funding that had been requested. [63283/21]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS) provides a framework for action on Traveller and Roma issues.  It represents a whole of Government approach and brings Government Departments and Agencies together with representatives of Traveller and Roma communities to bring a focus to the issues which affect them most in a structured way.

Funding is provided across a range of Government Departments to support and address the specific needs of the Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland. 

Under NTRIS, I secured funding of €5.659m to support Traveller and Roma initiatives in 2022.  The funding will be used to provide core funding to a number of Traveller and Roma Organisations and an increase of 3% has been provided to a number of NGOs.  The funding will also be used to support a number of important initiatives and projects, for example, employment projects, education projects, a number of social inclusion and cultural projects,, mediation and counselling services and others.

The Covid19 pandemic has highlighted the specific nature and extent of the needs of the Roma and Traveller communities and I have secured an additional €880,000 in Dormant Account Funds which will be used to support a number of specific projects to support the communities in 2022.  This represents an overall increase of 24% in the budget for Traveller and Roma activities for 2022.