Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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122. To ask the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the additional supports that he has put in place to ensure that communities that have welcomed refugees and asylum seekers are not in a position of having to use funding and resources that were previously allocated before the current crisis in Ukraine; and the supports that he has ensured are delivered from other Departments [56979/22]

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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My Department supports the integration of migrants through several funding streams. These include the Communities Integration Fund, the National Integration Fund, and the newly launched International Protection Integration Fund. My Department also provides funding for these initiatives through the Integration and Employment of Migrants stream of the European Social Fund Plus 2021-2027 Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training programme.

The purpose of the Communities Integration Fund is to support communities across Ireland to play a greater role in promoting the integration of migrants. Annually, a total of €500,000 is made available to local community-based organisations to carry out integration projects in their local areas. Organisations eligible to apply include local community groups, sports clubs, faith-based groups, arts groups, cultural organisations, and schools. Applicant organisations must operate on a not-for-profit basis.

The National Integration Fund arises from Action 6 of the Migrant Integration Strategy, which calls for funding to be made available to promote positive action initiatives to address areas where migrants find it difficult to avail of opportunities on an equal basis with other members of Irish society.

The purpose of the National Integration Fund is to support communities across Ireland to play a greater role in promoting the integration of migrants at both a regional and national level. Funding is made available over a maximum of three years. It can be used for both once-off initiatives and short- to medium-term projects. NIF projects take an inclusive approach, aiming to bring migrants and host communities together, and may not be directed solely to any one particular group or nationality.

In July, my Department launched the International Protection Integration Fund 2022. This new grant scheme was designed to enable community-based organisations across Ireland to support the integration of International Protection applicants. A total of €1.6 million has since been awarded to 67 organisations.

My Department has also recently run an open Call for Proposals for projects under the Integration and Employment of Migrants stream of the European Social Fund Plus, 2021-2027 Employment, Inclusion, Skills and Training programme. This call placed particular emphasis on providing employment-readiness supports to Ukrainian refugees. A number of projects have been selected for funding and will shortly be advised of their successful applications.