Immigrant Council of Ireland

Lobbying Organisation Immigrant Council of Ireland

Date published 18 Jan, 2019

Relevant Matter Public policy or programme

Public Policy Area Justice and Equality

Period 1 Sep, 2018 to 31 Dec, 2018

Specific Details Implementation of recommendation in National Migrant Integration Strategy for each local authority to have a local integration strategy

Intended results We hope to see all 31 local authorities adopt and implement effective local integration strategies

Name of person primarily responsible for lobbying on this activity Joe O'Brien, Integration Outreach Officer

Did any Designated Public Official(DPO) or former Designated Public Official(DPO) carry out lobbying activities on your behalf in relation to this return? You must include yourself, and answer Yes, if you are a current DPO or a DPO at any time in the past. (What is a Designated Public Official?) No

Did you manage or direct a grassroots campaign? No

Was this lobbying done on behalf of a client? No

Mass communications

Email All Local Authority Members We contacted all Local Authority Chief Executives to ask them to consider adopting the recommendations of our Keeping it Local report, which analyses what an effective strategy should include.

Email All Councillors We contacted all local Councillors to bring to the attention of their Chief Executives the requirements of Local Authorities under the National Migrant Integration Strategy to develop local migrant integration strategies. As an organisation with expertise in the area, we offered to present to each Council on what these strategies should include.

Lobbying activity

The following activities occurred for this specific Subject Matter Area.

Meeting (2-5)

We had three separate meetings with Longford, Waterford and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council officials, asking each Council to consider adopting the recommendations of the Immigrant Council of Ireland's Keeping it Local report. The report outlines the importance of every local authority having a local integration strategy and includes guidance on what such a strategy should include- for example ring fenced funding for intercultural small grants and running local community inclusion open days.

Meeting (2-5)

We had two separate meetings with the Local Community Development Committees in Donegal and Monaghan urging them as LCDCs to take a lead role in developing and monitoring a local migrant integration strategy.

Designated public officials lobbied

The following DPOs were lobbied during this return period on this specific Subject Matter Area. These DPOs were involved in at least one of the Lobbying Activities listed above, but not necessarily all of them. As returns are specific to a Subject Matter Area the above Lobbying Activities may be associated with multiple returns.

Barbara Heslin Director of Services or Equivalent (Longford County Council)

Michael Walsh CEO (Waterford City and County Council)

Fergus Galvin Director of Services or Equivalent (Waterford City and County Council)

Michael Quinn Director of Services or Equivalent (Waterford City and County Council)

Ivan Grimes Director of Services or Equivalent (Waterford City and County Council)

Ferghal Reidy Director of Services or Equivalent (Waterford City and County Council)

Bernard Pollard Head of Finance (Waterford City and County Council)

Dearbhla Lawson Director of Services or Equivalent (Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council)

Brian McKenna Councillor (Monaghan County Council)

Martin McDermott Councillor (Donegal County Council)

Seamus Neely CEO (Donegal County Council)

Michael Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig Councillor (Donegal County Council)