Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. As a people, we do not have a happy history of integration at home or abroad. In rural Ireland the divide between town and country now seems a curiosity of a bygone age. The blow-in is well known in rural Ireland and in many places one can still be a blow-in 50 years after moving into an area. Indeed, three generations on, a family may still be classed as blow-ins.

Abroad, as a race, we did not integrate into the United States or England for many generations, preferring to live in Cricklewood or South Boston, and to be among our own. Despite being the victims of racism in the United States, Britain and elsewhere, our record against other minorities in these countries is shameful, to say the least. The case of Eugene "Bull" Connor, notorious opponent of the black civil rights movement, who famously prevented the peaceful protest in Birmingham, Alabama, was a descendant of Irish emigrants. Racism by the Irish in the Five Points in New York on the proposed introduction of conscription during the American civil war led to a three-day riot by the Irish, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of African-Americans.

These examples of racism by the Irish abroad demonstrate that we need to redouble our efforts to ensure racism does not get a toehold in Ireland. We need to prevent ghettoisation in the sense of isolation from Irish society among the new Irish. Our experience abroad makes it easy for us to understand why the new Irish like to live together but living in the same area must not mean isolation. Our task as a Government is to get people of different languages to speak to each other.

We are lucky we can learn from the mistakes of others in Europe. We must avoid the problems of Germany, where, in the town of Marzhan, a population of 13,000 Russian migrants lives in a ghetto beset by drugs and violence. In Paris, isolation has now led to nearly annual riots among Algerian immigrants in Abbéville and, in Britain, the word "Brixton" and riots are nearly synonymous. These are events we want to avoid in our future, which is why the Government is acting now.

The appointment of a Minister of State responsible for integration is a timely move. His cross-departmental brief makes his task difficult but not impossible, and his capabilities are well known — his work in his previous post stands testament to that. However, with one in eight households now being new Irish, it is vital that the action plan against racism, Planning for Diversity, which is being implemented from 2005 to 2008, is implemented. The other initiatives announced by the Minister of State show the Government's commitment on the issue of integration. The task force on integration, the ministerial council for integration and the immigrant commission are all part of Government policy, which will guide us in the years to come. Other initiatives with the Garda, the health services and the city and town councils, where local anti-racism diversity plans are being implemented, as outlined by the Minister of State, show the Government's commitment. The FAI must be commended for its appointment of an intercultural officer and the corporate sector must also be commended for its work in expanding immigration and integration policy.

Education is the key, not only for the 17,000 new Irish but also for the 340,000 Irish in the second level education system, and not only for the 31,000 new Irish but also for the 446,000 Irish in the primary school system. The civil, social and political education, or CSPE, programme provides the Government with a perfect opportunity to teach the Irish about the new Irish. I ask the Minister of State to consider asking the Department of Education and Science to make integration a part of the CSPE course. Education is the key to shaping the Ireland of the future and it is also the way to teach young Irish people about the new Irish.

An extreme example of education being used to teach racism to an entire race was the Nazi domination of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when education was used to demonise, ghettoise and isolate the minorities. It is a stark example of education being used to promote a particular mindset but also an example of how, if a people can be taught racism, they can be taught integration. The Government's various initiatives are enabling people who speak different languages to communicate with each other and thus avoid isolation. For example, €120 million is being spent on 1,900 language support teachers, which is a major step in the right direction, compared with where we were five years ago when we had only 260 such teachers.

In our search to help integrate the new Irish I am delighted to see an integrated approach being adopted by the Minister for Education and Science and her counterpart in Northern Ireland towards determining the language proficiency of pupils. Teachers who have to deal with children whose first language is not English will find the tool kit for diversity in primary schools, Together Towards Inclusion, an invaluable aid.

I am sure many people are not aware of the Government's array of supports for parents of the new Irish. The Department of Education and Science's website, which provides information in six languages on the education system, is a great example of such initiatives. The DVD on the primary school curriculum in five languages is also a step in the right direction in helping the new Irish to find their way through our education system.

The final report by the ESRI on how increasing diversity in our schools impacts upon the resource requirements of day-to-day teaching and learning will be of assistance to the Minister in formulating policy in this area. Education has been a key to our economic success so we must ensure we provide enough resources to the education sector so that the new Irish are provided with the opportunity to contribute to this society.

I wish the Minister of State well in his work of ensuring future generations of Irish will judge people not by the colour of their skin but by their character. I commend the Government on its initiatives across a wide range of sectors and also wish the Minister well in his role.