2177. Deputy Ciarán Ahern asked the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration for an update on the Migration and Integration Strategy; when it will be published; to provide a list of stakeholders he has engaged with to-date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55185/26]

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.

The scope of the Strategy will 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 ten Departments represented on the SMPG are:

• Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration (Chair)

• 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 Community Development and the Gaeltacht

Each Department is in a position to convey the perspectives 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 14 occasions for detailed discussions on different aspects 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.

With specific regard to integration, work previously undertaken, including a detailed consultation process with stakeholders, will be taken into account in the development of this strategy. 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.

Over 7,000 submissions were received to the public survey on migrant integration, while 82 stakeholders provided written submissions, and two stakeholder workshops were held.

There was a second phase of consultation in 2024 which consisted of 11 focus groups with migrants and Irish citizens with a migrant background, and 74 people participated. The second phase targeted migrant communities who were underrepresented in phase one and participants were recruited through migrant organisations. In addition to this, focus groups were held with the Local Authority Integration Teams.

My Department is also continuing the work of the Community Engagement team during 2026, including engagement meetings that are being convened in each Local Authority area. These meetings are being convened in partnership with each Local Authority, and participants are a mix of statutory service providers  and community and voluntary sector representatives. The feedback received through community engagement meetings is supporting my Department's work to complete the Migration and Integration Strategy.