In line with the Consular Assistance Charter, my Department generally cannot provide financial support to Irish citizens in difficulty overseas, including those seeking to return to Ireland. In most cases, we can facilitate citizens to communicate with their families or friends in order to make arrangements for onward travel or to access funds to support themselves in country.
In some cases, citizens overseas can face practical difficulties in receiving monies directly from friends or family in Ireland. When this occurs, as a last resort, the Department can offer an advance of funds facility, whereby family or friends can lodge funds with the Department at our offices in Dublin or Cork or by electronic bank transfer, or at a Garda Station. Once the funds have been confirmed as received in the Department, an Irish Embassy or Consulate releases these funds to the affected citizen. In a small number of cases, this advance of funds mechanism has been used for the repatriation of citizens who require assistance to arrange travel back to Ireland.
In other cases, Irish prisoners overseas are facilitated through the advance of funds mechanism, with monies lodged to the Department either by friends or family, or by support organisations such as the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO) who can, in exceptional circumstances, provide small hardship grants to the most vulnerable Irish prisoners overseas.
The total amount lodged into the Department’s accounts, for the purposes of the advance of funds mechanism, broken down by year since 2018, is outlined below.
|
Year
|
Total
|
|
2018
|
€39,316.74
|
|
2019
|
€155,954.70
|
|
2020
|
€34,597.20
|
|
2021
|
€26,074.60
|
|
2022
|
€20,116.07
|
|
2023
|
€134,485.55
|
|
2024
|
€ 21,558.84
|
|
2025
|
€21,668.89
|
|
2026 (to date)
|
€13,736.61
|
