Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

35. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will outline how his Department is supporting returning Irish immigrants who wish to re-settle in Ireland but face difficult barriers in terms of housing, driving licences, opening bank accounts, educational and work opportunities; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19780/23]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Government’s Diaspora Strategy, 2020-2025, pledges to monitor barriers to returning emigrants and undertakes to remove them, where possible, and to improve the provision of information to diaspora communities about returning home.

In that regard, my Department engages with a broad range of organisations in Ireland and overseas to support returning Irish citizens and their families, including Crosscareand Safe Home, both of which receive ongoing funding from my Department.

My Department also provides funding to the Citizens Information Bureau, which provides practical, comprehensive information to those intending to return.

My Department also funds the Back for Business initiative, which provides peer guidance to Irish entrepreneurs who have returned, or plan to return, to Ireland. The sixth cycle of the Back for Business programme is currently underway and the initiative has been a very successful one, helping new businesses find their feet and create employment in different parts of the country.

The Department also engages on an ongoing basis with other Government Departments and agencies on the issues facing returnees, primarily through the Interdepartmental Committee on the Irish Abroad, which I chair, and most recently met on 29 March last.

The question of barriers to return did come up at the third Global Irish Civic Forum which took place at Dublin Castle on 20-21 April, 2023, and clearly some issues do remain. I can assure the Deputy the Government remains committed to doing all that it can to address such issues.