Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I thought the Minister, Deputy Shatter, would be dealing with this topic and I do not wish to embarrass him in his absence. If he had been present I would have said to him that this gentleman from Naas, Councillor Scully, has done irreparable harm to race relations particularly in the Kildare area. He has achieved notoriety by his statements. I suggest to our coalition partners that the leadership of Fine Gael is very slow in properly reprimanding that gentleman who has undermined completely the work of people engaged in promoting integration policies. He should have been expelled from the Fine Gael Party the day he did that radio interview.

In the past, there was a Minister of State who worked closely with the Dublin City Council office for integration in targeting racism and bringing about integration. There is a bit of a disjoint and I appeal to the Government to make sufficient funding available, particularly to the office for integration in Dublin so it can work more positively in addressing the integration issue and combatting racism.

I applaud Dublin City Council. I remind Deputies that Dublin has been ranked fourth of 29 cities by the Council of Europe on the basis of integrationist policies. We must redouble our efforts to create the type of society on which our international economic policy is built, namely, one which is open to inward capital and labour. We must also support integrationist policies to ensure people go out of their way to come here to live and work.

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