Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 27 January 2026
190. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration if there are plans to introduce a national asylum seeker integration strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6186/26]
View answer209. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration when his Department will publish a new migration strategy for the country; the Government Departments is he consulting with; if he is consulting with State agencies; the scope for public consultation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6202/26]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 190 and 209 together.
The Programme for Government contains a commitment to publish a National Migration and Integration Strategy detailing how Government intends to meet the demands and the opportunities facing Ireland’s society and economy over the next decade.
My Department is currently working collaboratively with a wide range of other Government departments to develop this strategy with the aim to publish Ireland’s first overarching whole-of-government National Migration and Integration Strategy later this year.
To that end, a Strategic Migration Policy Group (SMPG) was established in December 2024 to support that work which now consists of ten Government Departments meeting at senior official level.
The ten Departments represented on the SMPG are:
• Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (Chairing)
• Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment
• Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
• Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
• Department of Finance
• Department of Social Protection
• Department of an Taoiseach
• Department of Health
• Department of Education and Youth
• Department of Rural and Cultural Development and the Gaeltacht
Each Department represents the interests of the agencies under their remit which have also provided inputs to the Group as required.
The SMPG and its working group has now met on 13 occasions for detailed discussions on different aspects of the Strategy.
Following a transfer of functions in May 2025, migrant integration policy moved from the former Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration, and Youth (DCEDIY) to my Department.
Preparatory work completed by the former DCEDIY to develop a successor to the 2017 Migrant Integration Strategy included a detailed two-phase consultation process with migrants and stakeholders. The first phase of consultation consisted of a public survey, stakeholder submissions, and stakeholder workshops to gather insights into the needs, challenges, and opportunities for supporting migrant integration.
The second phase targeted migrant communities who were underrepresented in phase one and consisted of focus groups with participants recruited through migrant organisations. In addition to this, focus groups were held with the Local Authority Integration Teams.
The insights gained from these contributions are supporting my Department's development of the Strategy.
The key objective of the Strategy and the SMPG is to develop a whole-of-government approach to migration policy that is coherent across Departments and responsive in seeking to address Ireland’s current and future demographic, economic and social policy needs.
