asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has received funding proposals from the Irish Immigration Reform Movement in New York (details supplied); if so, the date on which he received these proposals; the response which has been made to them to date; and the amount of funding his Department is prepared to make available to this movement.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - New York Irish Immigration Group Funding.
21.
On 21 February last the Department of Foreign Affairs received a proposal by the Irish Immigration Reform Movement for funding towards the employment of two full time staff members to provide advisory services to Irish immigrants in the US.
Officials of the Department and of the Consulate General in New York have discussed the proposal with representatives of the IIRM who agreed to submit further details in support of it. When these are received, further consideration will be given to the matter.
Given the position of so many out-of-status immigrants in New York may I ask the Taoiseach if he is taking a sympathetic view of this proposal at this stage?
It is being assessed and I should like to remind the Deputy that we have undertaken a fair commitment in this area: consular services are now being provided fairly extensively and intensely and liaison committees have been established. I know, and I have heard this at first hand, that the activities of our consuls, especially those in Boston and New York, have been widely appreciated by these young people. My information is that they are doing a very good job and a fair number of new types of services are being provided. I do not think any of us can be satisfied with the situation but a fair amount of work is being done by the embassy, the consular offices and, of course, diocesan organisations in New York and Boston and also by the cities, again Boston and New York.
Given that the Irish Immigration Reform Movement have in their various documents expressed the fear that out-of-status immigrants in the United States will not go to official bodies such as the consulate——
I think that is gone now.
I know they had a fear in that regard——
I think that has been overcome.
——which they constantly expressed. May I ask the Taoiseach if he would consider in the longer term making increased funding available to the Irish Immigration Reform Movement in the US pro rata with the London funding, given the scale of the problem in the States?
That is part of the examination which is going on and we are putting a fair effort into it at official level.