The public has been invited to attend a meeting on a Syrian integration project in Lismore Co Waterford.

The Irish Refugee Protection Programme, administered through the Department of Justice, has chosen Lismore as one of several towns to run a pilot Community Sponsorship Programme to welcome and help to integrate refugees into Ireland.

The Lismore Welcome Project (LWP), an independent group of volunteers from the Lismore/Cappoquin area was set up at the end of 2018 to spearhead the community response and to put preparations in place to welcome a Syrian refugee family to Lismore in the summer of 2019, under this programme.

Lismore Welcome Project invites you to attend a public meeting at 7.30pm on Monday, March 4 at the Heritage Centre, Lismore, Waterford where this proposal will be presented to the community.

The meeting will be chaired by Lynne Glasscoe of the Lismore Welcome Project and the speakers will include Mr. David Stanton, TD, Minister of State for Equality, Migration and Integration; Ms Eibhlin Byrne, Director Community Sponsorship Programme, Department of Justice; Zuhair Al Fakirs, Dunshaughlin; Huda Safa'a Al-Deen, Mullingar.

Following contributions from the speakers, there will be a Q&A session. The panel for the Q&A will include all the above

speakers as well as representatives from Waterford Leader Partnership and NASC, the Migrant and Refugee Rights Centre, Cork.