I propose to take Questions Nos. 230 and 231 together.
The European Refugee Fund 2000-2004, ERF, was established by way of a European Council decision of 28 September 2000. The responsible authority for the fund in Ireland is the reception and integration agency of my Department.
The percentage of available funds that was distributed to NGOs statutory services and ethnic minority-led organisations during the first two rounds of the ERF was as follows:
|
NGOs
|
Statutory Services
|
Ethnic Minority-Led Organisations
|
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
2000/2001
|
89.1
|
10.9
|
0
|
2002
|
88.7
|
0
|
12.3
|
The selection of projects for the first two rounds of funding was carried out by selection committees comprising representatives from both governmental and non-governmental organisations on the basis of criteria specified in the European Council Decision 2000/596/EC which established the fund.
While not specifically "ethnic minority-led", many of the NGO projects which received funding in the first two rounds of the ERF employed the services of people from ethnic minorities, either on a voluntary basis or as salaried employees, to manage and carry out the proposed actions of those projects.
Distribution of the available funds across the three measures, reception, integration and voluntary return during the first two rounds of the ERF was as follows:
|
Reception
|
Integration
|
Voluntary Return *
|
|
%
|
%
|
%
|
2000/2001*
|
45.7
|
54.3
|
0
|
2002
|
27.5
|
62.4
|
10.1
|
*As the fund was only established in the latter half of the first year that it covered, applications for funding for both 2000 and 2001 were taken together and are therefore regarded as a single round of funding.