Ms Carole Brennan:

I am concerned about how the matter would be dealt with from the point of view of the police and how seriously it would be taken.

Part of the reason we are here today is to raise some of these issues. Deputy Seán Kenny was right to highlight positive examples such as Paul McGrath and role models who are mixed-race. For us, who grew up in institutional care, we were nobodies and we did not have anything to latch onto. We were never going to be famous or whatever, but who knows. Let us look at our colleagues seated in the gallery. It is the largest group of mixed-race Irish people I have seen in one place and it is in the Dáil. If we were not here today, the committee would not know these people existed. We were brought up in institutional care. Therefore, we were at a disadvantage because of the way we were brought up and the fact that our identity was kind of trashed. We lacked an identity.

The Deputy's question on racism is difficult to answer because one wants to be positive and say that Ireland has moved on. I believe it probably has, but for us, as mixed-race Irish, it probably has not, because we are still left with the legacy. That is the only way I can answer the question.