Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I assume the Deputy is referring to the new Irish. The survey showed that engagement and involvement among this sector were poor. The number of immigrants began to increase from the early 1990s. I cannot remember the figure for active involvement in society but it was not impressive. It was signalled that they should undertake new activities. Cumann Lúthchleas Gael put a big effort into the Railway Cup tournament recently and invited all of the communities, but it was not hugely successful. Some countries join in with communities but, from my memory, that is not great. The idea is that this will be a separate and active effort to try to engage communities.

Many of these people are here to work for a few years and go home, but many of them have put down roots here, gained citizenship and want to be citizens. I am sure the report is on the whole lot of them, but the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, in terms of the integration process, is taking an active interest in how to try to get the various communities — Muslim, Polish, others from eastern Europe and others from African societies — involved in activities in this country. The reason it is listed as a separate issue in the report is because participation of the new Irish according to the work done, which was mainly in 2006, was not impressive.

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