Ms Meadhbh Costello:

I have two points to make. First, I will return to the earlier conversation concerning the issue of inclusion in the workplace. The upcoming national action plan against racism is an excellent opportunity to provide a framework for this type of action that can be undertaken in the workplace. I refer to building an initiative within employment, where employers can become leaders in this area. The opportunity with this national action plan stems from taking a whole-of-society approach that really tries to address the underlying institutionalised elements of discrimination in society and that can provide an opportunity through resourcing and guidance for employers to take an active role in tackling racism and discrimination. It has been almost ten years since we have had an action plan like this one, and it has also been some time since we have had an integrated workplaces initiative. This is, therefore, an excellent opportunity to consider how we could feature some of these types of activities in that upcoming strategy.

My second point concerns the issue of spent convictions. IBEC is increasingly involved in this issue with the Working to Change strategy.

In fact, as Dr. McGann mentioned, in the coming weeks we are going to have a focus group on this issue with the Department of Justice to best try to understand what the challenges, attitudes and behaviours are in the workplace that are preventing that pathway to employment for people with previous convictions. We are trying to set a baseline there and trying to understand the issue as it stands and then to develop from that resources that can best support employers to better integrate people with previous convictions into the workplace. That is something we are seeking to be active on with employers who are currently engaging people with previous convictions or who perhaps have not considered this as an opportunity before. Again, that is something that we are looking forward to working on.

The second part of the strategy is about trying to get people who are active in the social enterprise sector into mainstream employment. There are possibly some learnings that can be taken from this strategy in terms of many of the issues raised in the discussion by Ms Anne Costello and Mr. Ward. We will consider how we can adopt them to help to support people from the Traveller community who are currently working in social enterprises into mainstream employment. That is something we are also going to be active on this year.