DÁIL SET TO DEBATE IRELAND’S OPT-IN TO €9.9 BILLION ASYLUM MIGRATION AND INTEGRATION FUND

This Thursday, the Dáil will debate a Motion on Ireland’s Opt-in to the European Union’s 2021-2027 Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). 

The time set aside for the debate cannot exceed 55 minutes.

AMIF 2021-2027, has a total budget of €9.9 billion made up from contributions by various EU member states.

The level of the contribution made by Ireland to the AMIF is unclear, although it is known that the Minister for Justice allocated €4.5 from the Fund for 20 projects in 2017 to support migrant integration projects over a three-year period with an additional 19 projects allocated grant funding of €4.5m to cover the period 2019-22.

According to a statement issued by former Minister of State at the Department of Justice, David Stanton, “the 2017 supported grants were to “bolster the good work being carried out every day by local community organisations and national NGOs in support of migrant integration, which is crucially important.”

The AMIF Fund is currently managed by the Funds Administration Unit of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under Minister Roderick O’Gorman.

The Funds Administration Unit was designated to be the ‘Responsible Authority’ in Ireland for the AMIF by the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee.

Minister O’Gorman informed the Dáil in June that Asylum Migration and Integration Fund payments would be “flowing to successful applicants in 2022.”

For the EU Commissions Migration and Home Affairs section, one of the four primary aims of the Fund is to “support legal migration to the Member States.”

Only today however, the Minister for Justice Helen McEntee launched one of the most wide-ranging amnesties for at least 17,000 people who have been residing in the state illegally, for up to ten years in some cases.

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