Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 November 2004
8 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he has agreed funding in the context of the Estimates for implementation of the recommendations of the task force on Irish emigrants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30077/04]
View answerThe Minister is delighted the funds available to emigrant services will once again rise substantially next year. The Estimates for Public Services include an overall allocation of €8.267 million to support our emigrants in 2005. This is a doubling of the 2004 Estimates figure. Even allowing for the additional funding which was made available to emigrant services in late 2004, this figure of €8.267 million represents an overall increase of 63%.
The task force on policy regarding emigrants, which was established by the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Cowen, produced an excellent report. It provides all those involved with emigrant services with a key framework that covers the full range of issues associated with our emigrants. It makes clear that these issues can best be addressed by a collective effort involving governmental and non-governmental agencies. We are making positive progress.
We have increased substantially funding to the voluntary organisations that assist our emigrants. The significant rise in funding has been warmly welcomed by emigrant representative bodies such as the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants and the Federation of Irish Societies, whose director described the increase as "an incredible boost for the Irish community in Britain". The funding will in large part go to groups providing front line services to our emigrant communities in Britain, and especially the most vulnerable Irish people there. There will also be significant increases for emigrant groups providing similar services in the United States and Australia.
This significant increase reflects in the clearest possible way the strength of the Government's firm and sustained commitment to our emigrant communities. Our commitment is both immediate and long term, and the substantial allocation for 2005 will be built on progressively in the coming years. Our commitment is also reflected in the establishment of a new dedicated unit, the Irish abroad unit, which has been warmly welcomed at home and abroad by everybody who has the interests of our emigrants at heart.
Will the Minister of State say what proportion this €8.267 million is of the money asked for by the task force to which he referred? We should remember that the task force dealt with Irish emigrants in Britain who are living at the margins. When people do their retrospective stints here, they do not refer to the fact that 55,000 people left Ireland in 1955 and almost 60,000 left in 1959. There was no year in the 1950s when less than 45,000 emigrated which amounts to more than a quarter of a million people. As the task force reported, these people would like to come home. They cannot come home to the speculator's paradise that is Ireland because they will not be able to get shelter. They need assistance. They have often been exploited by some of their own in substandard accommodation. When the task force reported and made 23 recommendations it put a figure on what it needed for 2004-05. Why did the Minister of State not give what was sought? What proportion is his €8.267 million of that which the task force sought to implement the recommendations it presented to Government?
The task force produced a fine report. As with any report and group of recommendations of this kind, the Government has to make its own assessment of priorities. That is the duty of Government.
I see.
Our major priority is Britain and to help the most vulnerable Irish there. We also need to build up the outreach capacity of the front line organisations wisely and progressively. The substantial increases we have achieved are exactly what is required. They will make a huge qualitative and quantitative difference and the positive reaction of those agencies on the ground to the increases is especially welcomed and appreciated. The task force included wide ranging conclusions, covering the full range of emigrant needs. Its recommendations were far reaching and varied and their implementation will be, by necessity, on a phased basis over several years. That is as anybody with a reasonable understanding of the position would expect. Our long term goal is to ensure that if a person emigrates from Ireland he or she does so voluntarily and is fully prepared for the challenges and will prosper in his or her new country of residence and be able to maintain links to home. Our immediate priority is to ensure that the agencies that provide front line services to assist our vulnerable and elderly emigrants are funded and helped in every possible way. Action is under way on more than two-thirds of the recommendations in the report. I shall give a few examples.
I remind the Minister of State that his limit of one minute has concluded.
I apologise. Please keep me in order.
The argument rejects phasing. Without delaying the House, I suggest the reason and ask the Minister of State to comment. The 1950s represent a crisis point on emigration. These are the people the task force identified as being particularly at risk in Britain. Some 55,000 people left Ireland in 1955 and 59,000 two years later. Each year during the 1950s approximately 50,000 people left, all of whom are at a particular age now. The whole focus of the task force report was to be able to address the needs of a huge bulge in emigrants who emigrated during that decade but who are in distress of a different kind and are elderly. There is some case to be made for phasing a future policy but there is no case to be made for refusing to put the expenditure in place for those who already need it.
Will the Minister of State accept that this is another broken promise and a betrayal of that 1950s generation? The task force recommended a figure of €34 million.
Yes, and it got €8 million.
The amount allocated falls far short of the recommended figure. Does the Minister of State recognise these people have contributed hugely to this country? Their absence means we have a demographic bounce, so to speak, in terms of health care because they are being treated in Britain. A great deal of money has been saved because they are living in Britain and yet the Minister of State is so parsimonious and stingy with the money. He has neglected and betrayed these people and is turning his back on them and it is disgraceful.
I am absolutely shocked. It is typical of the Opposition to suggest that if money is thrown at every problem it will solve itself.
That is the Government's policy.
The position is simple. We have doubled the Estimates since last year.
The Minister of State should read the report and implement it.
Since we returned to Government in 1997 we have increased the budget for our emigrants by 850%. The Minister for Foreign Affairs, when Minister for Social and Family Affairs, introduced pro rata pensions for all those who emigrated in the 1950s and they are now getting €72 million per annum from the Exchequer to assist them. If one adds that to the €8 million, it brings the figure to €80 million, which is nearly two and a half times the €34 million sought. We must ultimately examine the applications, agencies, capacity and the ability to deliver to our people. We must also provide capital commensurate with that policy.
