One of the frightening developments in the modern, so-called progressive Ireland has been the increase in racism and xenophobia. All parties recognise the need to put in place anti-racism measures. According to the Progressive Democrats Party, it is "determined to prevent the rise of racism in this country and we will continue to implement anti-racism awareness programmes." One of the truly frightening developments on election night was the fact that a Fianna Fáil TD, who openly tried to stir up public emotions with a series of blatantly racist comments, headed the poll in his constituency. Perhaps prompted by the embarrassment of having such a Deputy on its team, Fianna Fáil promised to review the campaigns designed to promote tolerance and understanding between the settled and Traveller communities and maintain multi-annual funding for targeted programmes. However, last Thursday, the Minister reviewed the campaigns by going in – not with a scalpel but a slash hook – and slashing the racism awareness campaign budget by a whopping 63% and cutting funding to the national consultative committee on racism and inter-culturalism by 5%. All of this following the scrapping of the Citizen Traveller programme.