Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

-----to diversity are the ones who go to it. Therefore, when it is not mandatory, it is a problem. When it is stated as mandatory, I would like to see how comprehensive that is. I am committing to the Deputy that I will find out more about that. Of course, training does not solve it either. Racism is deeper than that for many people. We have much work to do in that regard.

With regard to the Deputy's question about the employment permit system, I worked with many people on a one-to-one casework basis who, in one way or another, came here through the permit system. Certainly, the employer-employee relationship is an imbalanced one in terms of where the power lies. It is fair to say the permit system exacerbates that to some extent as well, which is why we need to pay particular regard to the vulnerabilities of people who are here on temporary permissions that have to be renewed on a regular basis and who are in these situations where they can be subjected to these kinds of prejudices. It does require additional care and additional cognisance of what people need in terms of protections when they are coming here from another country.

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