Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 2 May 2017
637. Deputy Declan Breathnach asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his plans to introduce incentives to Irish emigrants returning home from abroad to help them to reintegrate into society, for example, to get car insurance, set up bank accounts, access to credit and so on; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20003/17]
View answerIn my role as Minister for the Diaspora, and in particular through my role as Chair of the Inter-departmental Committee on the Irish Abroad, which was established in the Government’s 2015 ‘Global Irish – Ireland’s Diaspora Policy’ document, I work to facilitate the cross-Governmental effort to ensure coherence in Government policy, and to see that issues being highlighted as potential barriers disproportionately impacting on citizens returning to Ireland having lived overseas are addressed appropriately.
The Departments represented on this Committee have responsibility for issues under their competence and specific policies are matters for those Departments; such that car insurance, bank accounts and access to credit are the responsibility of the Department of Finance.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade provides significant funding and support through the Emigrant Support Programme to a number of organisations that work with citizens who wish to return to Ireland. Over the last decade over €4 million has been allocated to the Irish based organisations working with returning emigrants and I am pleased to note that their 2016 funding saw an increase of €60,000 on the 2015 figure.
