Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 1 July 2026
228. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration the assessment that has been undertaken of the State’s capacity across housing, health and education services to meet current and projected migration levels; and how this is informing overall migration policy. [50275/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe 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.
The scope of the Strategy will also include issues such as labour market needs, legal pathways, international education and planning for public service provision including housing, amongst other issues relating to migration.
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 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.
More broadly, capacity-based planning for Government services is a matter for each Department in its area of responsibility, be that Health, Education, Housing or any other sector, whether the demand for those services increases or declines in line with demographic changes, and whether those demographic changes arise from natural increases or declines in population or from immigration or emigration.
The Government considers such matters at a central level in initiatives such as the National Development Plan and National Planning Framework, and via consideration at appropriate Cabinet Committees of capacity planning measures.
