Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

I compliment the Deputy on his ongoing commitment to this issue and he has spoken out against racism over a long period.

Recent attacks on foreign national members of the community are the subject of ongoing Garda investigations and therefore I cannot comment on these cases nor on whether any racist motivation was involved. Any such attack must be strongly condemned and I urge anyone with any information to assist the Garda Síochána in its investigations.

Ireland has strong legislation prohibiting incitement to racial hatred along with robust equality legislation supported by an institutional infrastructure to promote equality and to provide redress where discrimination, including discrimination on grounds of race, occurs. There are currently a number of official mechanisms in place to record complaints of both racist crime and racial discrimination. All crime statistics, including statistics on reports of racially-motivated crime, are collated by the Central Statistics Office, using the data elicited from the Pulse system of An Garda Síochána. Information on reported criminal racist incidents from 2006 onwards is publicly available on the website of the office for the promotion of migrant integration and is broken down into ten different categories of crimes. The Central Statistics Office advises me that a further breakdown of the data in relation to, for example, gender and geographic location, is not made publicly available as this could lead to the identification of individual cases. The trends in these statistics are monitored by the office for the promotion of migrant integration and are updated on a regular basis.

There is no evidence of a significant upward trend in reported incidences of racist crime. In 2009, the total number of reported racist crimes was 128. In 2010, the total number of reported racist crimes was 122. The total number of reported racist crimes for the first three quarters of 2011 was 112. There is, however, no room for complacency and the Government is committed to combating and challenging any and all manifestations of racism. Depending on the nature of the racist incident, members of the public can report to a number of other organisations besides An Garda Síochána, including the Equality Authority, the Equality Tribunal, which deals with complaints of discrimination in the provision of goods and services and in employment, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, for complaints against members of the force, the Office of the Press Ombudsman, the crime victims helpline and the Irish Internet hotline. Contact information about the various organisations and the avenues available to the public, in addition to a range of statistics on reported incidents, are available on the website of the office for the promotion of migrant integration and also the organisations which the Deputy has identified and which have played a significant part in ensuring that people who come here from abroad are helped to integrate.

Ireland was one of the first states in the EU and, indeed, in the world, to develop a national action plan against racism. The plan was launched in 2005 and it was conceived as a four-year programme to run until the end of 2008. It was designed to provide strategic direction towards developing a more intercultural and inclusive society in Ireland and was largely integration driven. Under the plan, support was provided towards the development of a number of national and local strategies to promote greater integration in our workplaces, in An Garda Síochána, in the health service, in our education system, in the arts and sports sectors and within our local authorities.

The Deputy outlined all these areas in his contribution. The remainder of the reply will be available to the Deputy.

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