Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme, or SICAP, is our country’s primary social inclusion intervention. SICAP aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion and equality. SICAP workers have valuable experience and knowledge of supporting migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in their areas. I was happy to secure €10m to continue supports to arrivals from the Ukraine and also to International Protection Applicants in 2023. A breakdown in allocations for Cavan and Monaghan is outlined in table 1 below.

Table 1:

For 2024, I was delighted to once again secure €10m for New Arrivals funding. The 2024 allocation of the €10m funding for new arrivals has been revised to take account of changes and data revisions since the 2023 allocation. The revised model allocates funding based on the proportion of Ukrainian arrivals and IPAS Candidates in each SICAP Contract Area, using data provided by the Central Statistics Office and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

While some contract areas will see increases or decreases to their New Arrivals allocation compared to 2023, this approach ensures the distribution of funds is equitable and data-driven, with funding following the changes in population concentrations for each area. The allocations for Cavan and Monaghan for 2024 are outlined in table 2 below.

Table 2: