Australian groups awarded grants

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has announced over €100,000 in grants to several groups in Australia. The money is going to three Irish welfare centres and to Melbourne Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann.

The Minister said:

The Welfare Centres in Sydney and Melbourne are now taking on staff to develop their services. I am delighted to increase funding to these groups that do such invaluable work to support our communities in Australia. The centre in Woolongong, for instance, is engaged in community care to older Irish people who travelled to Australia some 50 years ago to work in the mines and factories of this industrialised area which has since experienced significant economic decline.

While the focus of our efforts is inevitably in support of our vulnerable citizens in Britain, and also in the US, we must never ever forget that there are older and vulnerable Irish people elsewhere in the world who need our help, including as the present grants show in Australia.