Vol. 491 No. 2
63 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the steps, if any, he has taken to facilitate the integration of racial minorities, including asylum applicants, into Irish society; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11498/98]
During European Year Against Racism, 1997 the co-ordinating committee for the year, which operated under the aegis of my Department, was provided with an allocation of £100,000 to implement its programme. The committee was representative of non-governmental organisations, State agencies, social partners and Government Departments. It progressed several racism themes including the media, gender, education, travellers, racism in the workplace and Government initiatives such as the National Anti-Poverty Strategy and the strategic management initiatives. The programme implemented for the year addressed racism experienced by nationals and non-nationals, and by black and minority ethnic groups and the traveller community.
I consider that this committee offers a good model for further work in this area. I therefore recently announced the establishment of an advisory committee on racism and interculturalism which will build on the work already done to address racism and promote interculturalism. I am providing an allocation of £20,000 to the new committee.
On 16 December last I moved an all-party motion on racism which clearly rejected racism in all its forms.
As I mentioned in my contribution to the debate on the Asylum Seekers (Regularisation of Status)(No. 2) Bill 1998, one of the recommendations of the interdepartmental committee which was set up to examine asylum and related issues was that all appropriate assistance should be given by the relevant public bodies to facilitate the integration into Irish society of persons recognised as refugees or given leave to remain in the State on humanitarian grounds. The Government accepted this recommendation and it is now included as one of the elements of my Department's strategy statement for the three year period to the end of the year 2000. In implementing this objective, I hope to create a situation in which those granted refugee status will be able to participate fully in Irish society to their own benefit and that of the community.
