A task force report on the social problems of Irish emigrants is to be launched today in Dublin by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen.
Details from a late draft were reported in The Irish Times last month and the final report is expected to highlight the need for a 500 per cent rise in emigrant aid.
The Mayo Independent TD, Dr Jerry Cowley, has said that any delay in implementing the task force report on emigrants would be "reprehensible".
The emigrant generation "gave us far more than the EU ever gave us", and many of these people are now living in poor economic circumstances, Dr Cowley said.
The Mayo GP, who is a founder of the Safe Home emigrant repatriation centre, was commenting on reports that current cutbacks in expenditure may result in the proposals being shelved.
The study, due to be published today, recommends that €34 million be spent on Irish emigrants by 2005. It also recommends social housing for emigrants who cannot afford to return home, and says funding should be provided for annual holidays for elderly Irish living abroad.
The Government-appointed task force found, according to the draft, that many emigrants who left Ireland in the 1950s, mainly for the UK, were now nearing retirement and in need of "immediate assistance". Many of them ended up in insecure, manual jobs and were now "unable to cope without support". The UK-based Irish suffered "disproportionately" from poverty and experienced "higher than average levels of mental illness, alcoholism and social exclusion", the draft report warned.
The Government was urged to put pressure on the UK authorities to ensure Irish exiles get a better share of local authority housing, and put "an Irish dimension" into its racial equality policies.
Funding for welfare groups should rise to approximately €15 million immediately, it says, while the Department of Foreign Affairs should set up a new body, a €3.5 million Agency for the Irish Abroad, to control all emigrant issues.
The recommendations would require significant changes in Government policy. This year, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment allocated €2.7 million to UK-based Irish welfare groups - up €1m on the 2001 figure.
Dr Cowley, who made a submission to the task force, said he welcomed its findings, but would be concerned about any lack of commitment to implementing it. "These people gave up any chance of pension plans, comfortable homes and any future for themselves to send home a pound, a fiver, a tenner - sustaining the Irish economy when we didn't have it, and rebuilding the British economy after the second World War," Dr Cowley said yesterday.
The Safe Home project, which Dr Cowley has spearheaded, has repatriated 114 emigrants to various parts of Ireland. Established as a statutory body which is also part of a voluntary capital assistance scheme, it works with the Department of Environment and local authorities on repatriation.
"We counsel people before, during and after they come here, and half of those who express interest end up not applying to come home as they prefer to live with the dream," Dr Cowley said.