Vol. 566 No. 3
174 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention has been drawn to the call made by a coalition of human rights groups for the establishment of an independent body to monitor and investigate race relations incidents; his views on the call; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12787/03]
As the Deputy is aware there are a number of issues involved here and I would like to tease out what I see as the respective roles and responsibilities of the existing agencies which are involved in dealing with the fallout of racism and racially motivated incidents.
First and foremost, the Garda Síochána is the body responsible for dealing with the investigation and detection of criminal matters which, of course, includes racially motivated crime. In this regard the Garda Síochána established the Garda Intercultural Office which has the role of co-ordinating, monitoring and advising the force on all aspects of ethnic and cultural diversity as they impact on policing. The Garda authorities have also agreed a definition of a racially motivated incident and now have in place a nation-wide mechanism to record and gather information on racist incidents and offenders using the PULSE computer system.
Second, at a general level within society, it is the role of the Equality Authority to promote the awareness of the overall equality framework, of which anti-racism measures are a constituent part. The authority works at many levels and with many bodies towards the elimination of racial discrimination and harassment within society. Furthermore, the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations – the Equality Tribunal – is the main body for investigating and mediating on cases of discrimination and harassment.
Third, there is a system in place within the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism to record racially motivated incidents. As the Deputy may be aware, the NCCRI is an independent body which is funded by my Department. The NCCRI is an umbrella organisation representing a range of NGOs and it operates a system of recording the number, type and location of racist incidents and also identifies emerging trends. The NCCRI publish its findings every six months and its third report, covering the period May to October 2002, was published recently. As I have said in the house before, the NCCRI is assisting my Department in the review of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989.
Finally, it is the role of my Department to monitor the situation and to recommend additional measures as appropriate. The Deputy will be aware of the many and relatively recent measures taken which have been developed by Government to deal with racism and racial discrimination. Legislation, such as, the Employment Equality Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000 outlaw discrimination and harassment on nine grounds, including, race, religion and membership of the Traveller community.
