Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 October 2021
158. Deputy Niamh Smyth asked the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth the status of the work of the Anti-Racism Committee; when he expects the final report to be published; the actions he will undertake in response to the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48697/21]
View answerThe National Anti-Racism Committee is an independent Committee established by Government in 2020 to develop a National Action Plan Against Racism. The work of the Committee will help to strengthen the Government’s approach to combatting individual and institutional racism and will build on the anti-racism actions included in the Migrant Integration Strategy (MIS) and the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS). The Committee will also examine international best practice in combatting racism and will benchmark its actions against these standards.
On 21 April this year, I had the pleasure of publishing the Anti-Racism Committee’s Interim Report, which sets out the Committee’s initial ideas and plans for developing the National Action Plan Against Racism. The publication of this Action Plan will fulfil a key commitment within the Programme for Government.
On the same day as the publication of the Interim Report, the Committee launched the public consultation phase of its work, which ran for twelve weeks from 21 April until 14 July. During this phase, the Committee accepted written submissions, conducted an online survey, and held a series of consultation sessions with stakeholders in order better to understand the nature and different forms of racism that are present in Ireland today. There were 14 consultation sessions which took place between May and July, and these were attended by approximately 170 people in total. These sessions addressed different themes such as access to justice; media and new technologies; and others identified by the Committee as being of particular concern in the fight against racism. I was pleased to see that over 100 written submissions were made, and these are currently being analysed.
Having completed its public consultation, the Anti-Racism Committee is now engaged in the preparation of the National Action Plan Against Racism, with a view to submitting a draft Plan to me for consideration in the coming months. I then intend to bring this Plan to Government and, subject to the agreement of the Government, hope to publish it early next year.
