Sixteen organisations providing welfare services and support to Irish emigrants in Australia will receive a total of almost €415,000 this year, Minister for Diaspora Affairs Jimmy Deenihan has announced.
The funding is part of the €12.5 million in grants the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Emigrant Support Programme will provide this year to support Irish people abroad.
The largest single recipients of the funding are the Irish Australian welfare bureaus and resource centres in Sydney (€119,492), Melbourne (€99,656) and the state of Queensland (€58,946). The Sydney St Patrick's Day Organisation Inc will receive €45,484.
“The funding will support frontline welfare organisations to help members of the Irish community, particularly those who are elderly or vulnerable,” Mr Deenihan said in Perth.
“Funding has also been made available to organisations that help foster Irish identity within our community.”
There are 70,000 Irish-born people in Australia.
Mr Deenihan is on a 10-day visit to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to meet members of the Irish communities there and to lead an Enterprise Ireland trade mission. He also officiated at the opening of an honorary consulate for Western Australia in Perth.
Together with GAA president Liam O’Neill, Mr Deenihan also launched Striving and Surviving in Australia Guide, a resource to support Irish people moving to Australia.
It contains advice from Irish people who have travelled through Australia and links to social media sites. It will be available digitally and as a wallet card, and will be distributed among all GAA members and the local Irish communities.