asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the facilities that are made available in Irish embassies abroad, and in particular in Britain, to assist Irish citizens in difficulties and to provide them where necessary, with free passage home in times of distress.
Ceisteana—Questions. Oral Answers - Irish Embassy Facilities.
10.
Where a citizen in distress approaches an Irish embassy for help, the help given would depend on the circumstances.
Where the citizen wishes to return to Ireland the embassy contacts relatives or friends named by the citizen to get the necessary funds for his or her repatriation. My Department may, for example, accept the money in Irish currency in Dublin, so that the embassy can advance the equivalent in local currency. A statutory fee is deducted from the amount deposited. Only in very exceptional cases can official funds be used to repatriate a person.
In other cases the embassy may be able to advise and help the citizen to avail of his or her rights under the welfare system of the area. The embassy itself would have neither the funds nor the resources to act as a welfare office.
In London, in addition to the normal help and advice that can be given to citizens in distress, an officer from the Department of Labour is attached to the embassy. He maintains contact with Irish bodies which provide welfare services specifically for Irish people in Britain. In addition to his general contacts he is chairman of an advisory group called DION. This group advises the Minister for Labour on questions relating to the welfare of Irish emigrants in Britain. The Minister for Labour has a fund to help the Irish welfare groups in their work. This fund stood at IR£38,000 for 1983. It was increased in 1984 and 1985, and further funds have been allocated for 1986 to bring the amount in 1986 to IR£150,000.
Is the Minister satisfied that this is the position in Britain? Further, has he as Minister for Foreign Affairs received individual complaints from Irish citizens in Britain over the past 12 months?
I am not sure what the Deputy is referring to when he asks if I received complaints. Of course I would like to do more to help Irish people living in England. I think we have been reasonably generous in the amount of money we have allocated this year. It has increased by some 300 or 400 per cent in the past three years. Of course, I would like to give more, but I am not sure what the Deputy meant when he asked if I had received complaints.
To clarify my question, I mean from dissatisfied Irish citizens in Britain. Has he had individual complaints with regard to their treatment in the embassy in London?
I am not aware of what complaints the Deputy might be referring to. When you have one million people of Irish descent living in Britain and possibly 43,000 people who went to America — is that the reply I gave to Deputy Leyden a few minutes ago? — and probably ten times that number who went to Britain and the Continent, you are talking about a million and a half Irish people who are in potential contact with the Irish embassy in London. I would think that the law of averages would have broken down badly if there were not complaints amongst that number.
The Minister referred to 150,000 this year.
Going to America was it?
No, £150,000.
That is correct, £150,000.
I take it that figure is to cover all Irish embassies abroad.
No, it is just for Britain.
Then what sum is available to assist Irish citizens seeking aid from the Irish embassy in America?
The money in England is not to assist Irish citizens seeking aid. It is to assist the welfare societies in Britain to assist Irish people who have emigrated to Britain. If an Irish citizen in America requires funds to come home he will go to the embassy or to the Consul General in New York or one of the consulates in, say, Chicago, Boston or somewhere else. They would then endeavour to arrange to have the funds lodged with the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin. When that had been done they would advance the funds to the person seeking funds from home in the American city.
I want to ask one final supplementary question. Could the Minister tell us how money is given to people who wish to return here from England?
I can get the Deputy that information, but could not give it to him now.
I must now take questions nominated for priority.