I thank the Chairman and members of the joint committee for affording us the opportunity to share with them the federation's work with the Irish community in Britain and the issues we are trying to resolve on their behalf.
The Federation of Irish Societies is a national organisation with 115 members. It is the largest and most representative Irish umbrella organisation. It has been in existence since 1973 and was initially set up by a small group of individuals, working for and on behalf of the Irish community, who recognised the need for a forum to provide support and guidance for organisations working with Irish people. Since then, the pattern of emigration has altered and the needs of the Irish community in Britain have changed considerably. The federation has responded accordingly and has developed from a voluntary body, governed by a management committee with no paid staff, to an organisation that now employs 12 staff and has a strong board of trustees. We are waiting to hear the outcome of the recent DION allocations. If we are successful, I hope we will be in a position to expand our staff team to 17.
The vision of the federation is to achieve a confident, healthy and empowered Irish community participating fully in a multicultural Britain. We aim to do this by supporting, representing and developing our member organisations and the Irish voluntary sector in Britain.
The federation is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity for the Irish community in Britain. This involves representation at all levels of government — national, regional and local. Particular areas where the federation is working hard to represent the Irish community include the ethnic minority issue and the inclusion of the community in new initiatives for black and minority ethnic communities.
In addition to its representation in Britain, the federation acknowledges the importance of working closely with the Irish Government and would welcome the opportunity to meet regularly with key politicians and civil servants to raise issues of importance which it feels are relevant to the Irish community in Britain. It is important that the interests of the Irish community in Britain remain on the agenda in Ireland. We very much appreciate that the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs has given us this opportunity to meet it today.
An important issue for our members, with which I am sure the committee will be familiar, is that of free travel for Irish emigrants when they wish to return to Ireland to visit family and friends. This is a topic that has been on all our agendas in recent years and one regarding which we hope there will soon be a satisfactory conclusion. Our members have requested that the federation continue to work on their behalf on this issue. With that in mind, I met the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Brennan, during his recent visit to London, where we discussed the matter in some detail. At his request, I am now in a position to offer his Department some information on numbers, the take-up and need within the community. I remain hopeful that this long running issue will be finally resolved. The federation welcomes the support of the joint committee and other Irish politicians who continue to make representations on this matter.
This year the work of the federation focused on strengthening relationships with its statutory partners. It has also made great strides in developing inter-agency co-operation and raising the profile of the Irish community in Britain. I am very grateful to the ambassador and the Irish Embassy staff for supporting us in developing good working relationships with statutory agencies and key political figures.
During the coming year, we will be increasing the focus on local and regional areas and supporting our member organisations in becoming more involved at a representational level. We will also be targeting local statutory bodies in areas where there is no Irish organisation on the ground to do this.
We have put a strong emphasis on working with those groups who face social exclusion, such as Travellers, the elderly and those with mental health issues, since there is evidence to suggest that these groups are disproportionately represented among those experiencing social and health disadvantage. The federation will continue to map these inequities and to challenge and address them.
There have been notable achievements as a result of the federation's success in lobbying on behalf of the Irish community. For example, it has lobbied the UK Department of Health, the National Institute for Mental Health England, the Mayor's Office and the Greater London Authority. However, there is much more to be achieved with other statutory bodies.
There is a need to ensure that relevant data are available for the federation to continue to lobby successfully on behalf of the Irish community. These should include census information and up-to-date research on the needs of the community. One of our areas of concern is making sure that the census of 2011 will reflect the Irish dimension and ask the relevant questions to capture the required data. The federation is currently engaged in consultation with the Office for National Statistics to include questions relating to second and third generation Irish. I would welcome the support of committee members in addressing some of these policy issues if opportunities arise for members to meet counterparts or colleagues in Britain. This would help us to increase the profile of the community and inform those involved of the work of the federation in these areas.
Many of the federation's members are organisations providing a valuable and much needed front line service for the Irish community. Members cover a broad range of activities and provide a selection of services covering welfare, advice, counselling, housing, cultural and social activities. The federation's capacity building project, which is funded and supported by DION and the Irish Abroad unit, has been under way since September 2004 and already we see a number of common trends emerging which are affecting our organisations. These include governance; there is a skills deficit among our management committees and there are difficulties in recruiting and retaining new members, leaving small committees with difficulties in retaining high calibre staff. In terms of fundraising, there is often an over-dependence on one funder, mainly DION in this instance, or local authorities. Resources are lacking for relevant training courses in terms of finance as well as time, and with regard to networking, the links with external statutory and voluntary groups are poor. Many organisations do not access local fora or have little or no contact with other British and Minority Ethnic Agenda, BME, groups in the local area.
This part of our work involves supporting and empowering member organisations in realising their potential, developing them and enabling them to continue to provide quality services for the Irish community. We look at the ability of the Irish community to engage with its BME partners and other mainstream services, explore funding alternatives and encourage partnership working with statutory organisations.
We have already seen significant achievements within this project, where our team of community development workers has supported organisations in developing better relations with its local statutory bodies, has increased funding coming into organisations and has supported groups through mediation processes. The willingness of groups to access federation support contrasts with their lack of willingness to access mainstream help. While not wishing to duplicate provision, we feel that Irish groups should have access to support with which they feel comfortable. With this in mind I am grateful for the increased resources becoming available through the DION committee and on behalf of the federation I thank DION and the Department of Foreign Affairs for the introduction of the Irish Abroad unit as part of its commitment to implementing the recommendations of the task force on policy relating to emigrants. We are already seeing the benefits of this more co-ordinated approach and we are working closely with the Irish ambassador to Great Britain and with Mr. Seán Farrell, Ms Síle Maguire and the staff of the unit to progress the Irish in Britain agenda.
Another area of concern faced by the Irish community in Britain is its persistent and increasing ill health. Key physical and mental health issues have been identified and there is a clear need for our organisations to work more closely with statutory health providers to redress the situation. Our recent research report, "Health Impact Assessment", shows that as a community we are not developing appropriate links with statutory providers and therefore not accessing the range of health care provision available. Many committee members will be aware that in respect of heart disease, respiratory problems and cancer, the Irish community has higher mortality rates than for any other community in Britain, or the indigenous population, and is the least likely to have any health promotion campaigns and information targeted at it despite these quite shocking statistics. We have been working closely with the Department of Health and Children and I am delighted that we are now meeting with the coronary heart disease team, the cancer team and the alcohol and smoking cessation teams to redress the situation.
Another important area of our work relates to culture. There is a growing number of second, third and subsequent generations of Irish people who would benefit from increased access to Irish cultural experiences in Britain. The Federation of Irish Societies currently has over 50 clubs and society members. These groups provide a range of cultural activities on behalf of the Irish community. However, what is available to the community at present needs to be better resourced and co-ordinated while there is also a need to diversify cultural experiences so that a wider range of activities is on offer. The federation is currently mapping these organisations and the services they provide in order that development support can be given and any gaps in service provision addressed.
The federation already provides support for these members through the work of our clubs and community development worker. The demand for support from this worker is huge, and he is responding to a variety of needs covering governance, business and financial planning, marketing, recruitment and other employment issues. Unfortunately, there is little or no acknowledgement at British Government policy level of the need for development of cultural activities for the Irish community. This is being challenged by ourselves. Some of the federation's members have well developed activities such as drama or sport, but despite a thriving culture of Gaelic football and hurling in some areas, there is limited support from statutory funders.
We are extremely concerned about the recent decision made by RTE to continue its broadcasting of radio sports coverage on FM only, as this will most certainly affect the Irish community living in Britain. Many — in particular, the elderly population — will be adversely affected by this decision. Naturally the federation is keen to overturn the decision as it believes it will have a huge impact on its members, particularly as medium wave and long wave radio is the way that many keep in touch with their local area back home. We are also keen to see the introduction by RTE of a dedicated Irish television channel as additional resources to these cultural aspects within the Irish community is urgently needed. We are encouraged by recent discussions between RTE and the Government on this matter.
We were delighted to welcome a representative from RTE radio to our annual congress weekend in June to discuss these concerns. Many thanks to Senator Mooney for facilitating this, and also to the committee for sending the Senator as its representative. We were pleased with RTE's commitment to investigate the types of programmes of interest to the Irish community. The federation is now consulting with its members and the wider community on what they would like to see being broadcast in Britain. We shall forward these views to RTE as soon as possible. Again we would value the committee's support in this matter.
I hope that I have given members of the committee a broad overview of the factors affecting the Irish community in Britain, both internally and externally. The federation is currently in a strong position to continue to work on behalf of its affiliates and the wider community and is poised to develop and expand the services it can offer. It has a clear representative role within the Irish community, which is recognised, and is the organisation that statutory agencies rely on when seeking to consult with the community.
I thank the Chairman and the members for giving us the opportunity to meet the committee today. We look forward to continuing our close co-operation with members of the committee and their colleagues in the Oireachtas in addressing the needs of the Irish community in Britain.