The Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, yesterday announced the allocation of grants totalling u £715,000 to be distributed among welfare and advice organisations working with the Irish community in Britain.
Six new projects for the elderly Irish community in Coventry and three travellers' projects in London were allocated new funding for their centres. £16,000 grant for the RehabCare organisation will assist in the development of a new resource centre for older members of the Irish community in Coventry which aims to increase their chances of living independent lives. Other recipients include the London Gypsy and Travellers Unit, which will receive u£12,000; the Finsbury Park Street Drinkers Initiative, which will receive u £10,000, and the London Irish Women's Centre, which gets u £8,000 to help fund its work in providing welfare, education and housing advice to Irish women in London.
The awards, known as the Dion grants, have been allocated by the Government since 1984 on the recommendation of the "Dion Committee", whose current members include the Tanaiste, Cllr George Meehan, the leader of Haringey Council in London, and Ms Vicki Somers of the Eastern Health Board.
At a reception in the Irish Embassy in London, attended by the Ambassador to Britain, Mr Edward Barrington, and members of the 37 organisations receiving grants, the Tanaiste also announced an uIR £137,000 increase in the total Dion grant allocation for this year to u £750,000. She said increasing the funding would facilitate the improvement of services to older Irish emigrants and travellers in Britain.
It is also hoped that funding will be provided later this year for the new Irish Travellers' Movement in Britain when the organisation has had the opportunity to develop further. To date, £7 million has been allocated to welfare groups through the Dion scheme.
The scheme also helps to pay the salaries of frontline advice workers in housing, benefit entitlement, employment and health.
Other grants have been allocated to fund the post of community care development co-ordinator with the Federation of Irish Societies and community workers at the Action Group for Irish Youth.
After the reception, the Tanaiste visited the Haringey Irish Community Care centre in north London where Dion grants have helped the development of frontline advice facilities for the local Irish community.
Earlier, the Tanaiste addressed members of the Foreign Press Association where she told members she remained "optimistic" that the June 30th deadline for the devolution of full powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly could be met.