Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is very much aware of the challenges which people can face when returning to live in Ireland. The current Diaspora Strategy 2020-2025 undertakes to monitor barriers to returning emigrants and to remove them, where possible. It also undertakes to improve the provision of information to diaspora communities about returning home. These undertakings reflect the findings of the report to which the Deputy refers, the 2018 Indecon Economic Report Addressing Challenges Faced by Returning Irish Emigrants, which was commissioned by my Department.

My Department has engaged with other Government Departments and agencies on the issues facing returnees and raised in that report, and will continue to do so, including through the Interdepartmental Committee on the Irish Abroad, which I chair. While some progress has been made on specific issues, such as car insurance, the Deputy will appreciated that other issues, such as housing, childcare and healthcare, are being addressed by Government in a much broader context

The Interdepartmental Committee has identified the provision of information, advice and assistance as an area where more could be done and in that regard, we have engaged with a range of organisations in Ireland to support returning Irish citizens and their families. My Department provides annual funding to Crosscare and Safe Home, both of which assist returning emigrants, and my Department also provides annual funding to the Citizens Information Bureau for its dedicated “Returning to Ireland” portal which provides practical, comprehensive information to those intending to return.

By way of more direct support, 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 seventh 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.

I can assure the Deputy that the Government remains committed to making the process of moving home as straightforward as possible for returning emigrants and their families and to having all of the information they need available to them.