Council for refugees may close for lack of funding

The Irish Refugee Council, the main body representing and providing services to refugees and asylum-seekers, is facing a financial crisis. Sources close to the council say it has virtually run out of donor funding and faces closure unless a long-term source of financial support is found.

"We've used up all the generosity out there and bled them dry. Now we have only the State to turn to," one member of the council said.

In response to the lack of funding, the council has closed its main office on Arran Quay. The long-term director of the IRC, Ms Nadette Foley, is leaving later this month to take up a job in Belfast. In addition, the FAS social employment scheme which pays the wages of most of those left working for the council is coming to an end and will not be replaced immediately.

The council decided at an executive meeting at the weekend to make a fresh application to the Department of Justice for longterm funding of its activities. It is expected to outline the parlous state of its finances at a press conference later this week.

The Department used to provide month-to-month funding of the council's legal work on behalf of asylum-seekers, but this support ceased more than a year ago.

A management consultant has been contracted to carry out a study of the options available to the council; her report is expected shortly. The consultancy has been paid for by a donor who wishes to remain anonymous.

The Dublin office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is paying the rent of the council's remaining office in Dominick Street, an arrangement which runs out at the end of the year. The council's financial problems were worsened further after the Department queried the accounting procedures relating to a £16,000 payment due to the organisation. However, this has since been settled and most of the money has been paid. The council is a representative body for more than 50 non-governmental organisation working in Ireland and overseas. It aims to promote the cause of asylum-seekers and refugees and to provide practical support services for those newly arrived here. However, after the numbers coming to Ireland started increasing rapidly two years ago, the council found itself unable to cope with the massively increased workload.

More than a year ago, the council stopped providing legal advice to asylum-seekers, though it still provides a documentation services. Since then, most asylum-seekers make their applications without the benefit of legal advice.

Most of its employees were volunteers or FAS trainees earning as little as £65 a week. There was a high staff turnover, the office space was too cramped for the number of asylum-seekers looking for assistance and relations with the Department were seldom less than fraught.