Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 December 2023
71. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to provide details on what criteria are in place to determine that the Government grant funding to communities to assist with integration is meeting community requirements, and that the funding allocations are being targeted at the areas of greatest need; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55623/23]
View answerWhat criteria are in place to determine that the grant funding provided to assist communities with integration is meeting the needs of communities? Are the funding applications being targeted to the areas of greatest need?
I thank the Deputy for the question. My Department administers a number of funding programmes addressing integration in communities on the basis of annual or multi-annual open calls for funding. The Department will also offer several funding calls of a similar nature in 2024. Each of these funding calls is run in a transparent and competitive manner, with applicants given detailed guidance on the particular criteria of each call. When assessing applications to open calls, the assessors consider the need to achieve a balanced geographical spread of activities. The assessment process is robust, with the use of an external evaluator to evaluate the process undertaken for the call to ensure that the scoring of projects is as fair and accurate as possible.
On completion of all projects, the grant recipients are required to submit full project reports. This ensures that projects achieve their stated goals in assisting with integration in communities. Each call for funding has targeted themes and will sometimes focus on special priorities, and these may change year to year so that services can be more targeted. This year, my Department has managed a number of successful integration funding calls on that basis.
The communities integration fund has been in place since 2017 and since its inception has supported over 820 projects with grant funding totally €3.82 million. This year, the fund awarded 111 organisations once-off grant payments with a total value of just over €500,000. That call ran in March this year. The international protection integration fund has a goal to support communities across Ireland so they can play a role in promoting the integration of international protection applicants. This year, 71 projects have been awarded approximately €1.2 million.
The national integration fund has the goal of supporting communities across Ireland to play a greater role in promoting integration and is open to organisations operating at regional and national level. Approximately €750,000 is committed per year, subject to the availability of funds. The minimum grant is €25,000, but the amount can go up to €200,000. In addition to these, we will announce a new grant award system under the national integration fund and the EU asylum migration and integration fund early in the new year.
I thank the Minister of State. I concede that there are many challenges facing the Minister of State and Department, given the enormous brief they have. It is important that those who come and seek refuge in the State, in particular those who are successful in getting international protection, are properly integrated into our communities. We have seen many examples across Europe and elsewhere of failures to integrate communities and the massive pressures that creates within those communities.
It is critically important that the moneys being put into integration are properly targeted. I have spoken to many communities who might be resistant or have concerns about refugees coming into their communities. They cite those concerns because of the failures in services, facilities and amenities. What audits, if any, are being carried out by the Department to ensure that the money is being properly targeted to address the deficits in their areas that communities are highlighting?
The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has a geographical focus for grant applications, as I outlined. I am also a Minister of State in the Department of Rural and Community Development, which provides social inclusion and community activation programme allocations and allocations to volunteer centres. Going into 2024, we are specifically looking at the numbers of new arrivals, both international protection applicants and Ukrainians in each local development company area. That is a refresh in our data from last year in terms of where we focus people on the ground, that is, community workers. We have the community recognition fund. That specifically examined the numbers of new arrivals from 12 months ago. The numbers are largely accurate. That fund is being rolled and is helping to increase infrastructure across communities. Those two mechanisms are especially targeted in terms of numbers that have come in the last 18 months.
I appreciate that there are a number of different elements when it comes to funding. We might drill down into the funding that is being allocated. The Minister of State cited the 800 different projects that were invested in since 2017 through the community infrastructure fund. In the recent round of funding, there was a 53% deficit in demand for that scheme. There was a 67% disparity in the context of the Ireland Against Racism fund. That is a major deficit in circumstances where communities are putting together applications and applying for funding and where the level of funding that is available falls short of what is being sought and is needed. Given the huge pressures within communities and the massive challenges for the Department, it is critical that an audit is carried out to ensure that the money that is being spent is being properly targeted and second, that the appropriate level of funding is going in to address the many deficits within communities to ensure the people who need our protection are being welcomed with open arms into our communities.
As I mentioned, there are checks and balances. There is independent oversight of the grant process. The Deputy’s figures are based on the number of requests for funding. There is another cut-off point in terms of viable projects as well. Sometimes we get requests for funding where the projects do not add up in terms of what has been put forward. That is where the independent set of eyes comes into play. That said, we need as many resources as we can for community projects. The Ireland Against Racism fund is a good example of that. We initially only allocated €1 million to that fund. We managed to get a further €300,000. I am fighting to get as much as I can for all those strands because they all do invaluable work.
Integration is a multifaceted issue. The Department of Education has its own school areas in relation to the numbers of pupils involved, the HSE has its own metric to measure demand and the National Transport Authority has its methods of measuring demand for its services as well. They are all in the mix too and there are processes at play too.
