Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann:- welcomes the establishment by the Government of the new office of Minister of State for new communities, culture and equality;

- commends the Minister of State for the work he has done to date with new communities, in particular through the organisation of the recent inaugural PolskaÉire 2015 festival; and

- calls on the Minister of State to outline to the Seanad the work he has done through development of the national integration strategy and other matters related to integration and new communities.

I also welcome the Minister of State and thank him for taking the time to come before us to discuss this important topic.

The motion welcomes the establishment by the Government last year of the new office of Minister of State for new communities, culture and equality and commends the Minister of State for the work he has done to date with new communities. Of course, the real impetus behind it was the organisation of the inaugural PolskaÉire 2015 festival which, as Members are aware, took place last week and proved to be hugely successful. The motion also calls on the Minister of State to outline to the Seanad the work he has done on matters related to integration and new communities and in the development of the national integration strategy. I very much look forward to hearing what he has to say.

I begin by referring to the issue of new communities and integration in general. This subject is close to my heart, particularly as my grandfather moved here from what was then Czechoslovakia in 1946 at a time when there was very little inward migration to Ireland. His name was Karel Bacik and he was involved in the glass industry in Bohemia. When he came to Ireland, he re-established Waterford Glass which was later taken over by an Irish consortium. His influence really brings home the message on the enormously positive contribution new communities can make to Ireland's economy and society. My grandfather brought over quite a number of Czech craftsmen to work in the glass factory in Waterford and some of their descendants, including my cousins, still live there. Mine is very much a personal story about the contribution of new communities, although they were not identified as such in the 1940s, when all we had were very small communities of inward migrants.

Happily, much larger numbers of such migrants now live here and they contribute to Ireland's society and economy. That is what was really being celebrated during the PolskaÉire festival last week. The Minister of State has previously recounted his experience of hearing a loud cheer from Croke Park during a soccer friendly between Ireland and Poland in 2008. When he heard the cheer, he assumed Ireland had scored a goal and was shocked when he discovered it had been scored by Poland. The cheer, of course, had come from the Polish supporters in the crowd that evening. This is a great story because it illustrates just how big the Polish community here is and how important it is to Ireland. We all have Polish friends. Polish people are well integrated into all communities and every local shop now stocks Polish goods. The Polish deputy head of mission in Ireland wrote the foreword to the PolskaÉire festival programme and referred to how much Ireland and Poland had in common in both history and culture. It is estimated that some 150,000 Polish citizens live in Ireland and that Polish is now the second most widely spoken language on the island of Ireland. These are remarkable statistics and worth celebrating. The Minister of State deserves enormous commendation for taking the initiative to celebrate the diversity of the Polish community.

I take the opportunity to welcome the representatives of the Polish community and the PolskaÉire festival who have joined us in the Visitors Gallery. I am glad to see them here. We are all very happy to welcome them for this debate.We in this House are all very happy to welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, to the House for this debate. We were just speaking about the PolskaÉire festival. In a sense, it was an initiative that was overdue because the Polish community in this country has now become so large and so well integrated. A hugely varied range of events was on offer as part of the festival. In a way, the festival was built around the important European championship qualifier between Ireland and Poland, which as everyone is aware was held on Sunday night. We had the very equitable one-all result, which nicely matched the atmosphere of the festival itself. We had events as varied as: a course of learning Polish through football; a Polish-Irish art exhibition in Polish House on Fitzwilliam Place; FAI open days across the country - the FAI was an important partner in the festival; events on integration and Polish-Irish relations in both the Mansion House and in UCD; the very important Oireachtas GAA challenge match last Tuesday night; the Polish film festival which is ongoing in Smithfield; and an event in Cork in the Crawford Gallery on the story of Casimir Markievicz.

It was only really when I was looking over the programme of events that I suddenly realised that just outside this Chamber we have a picture with a very strong Polish connection, one which is replicated in the PolskaÉire festival brochure, namely, the painting of Constance Markievicz, the first woman Deputy elected to Dáil Éireann and the first woman elected in December 1918 to the House of Commons in Westminster, although she did not take her seat. The portrait hanging outside the Seanad Chamber is reputedly painted by her husband, Casimir Markievicz, who was the Polish connection. As everyone is aware, she was born Constance Gore-Booth. I thought it was a very nice way to illustrate the long relations between the two countries to have an event centred around the life of Casimir Markievicz.

When I organised an event in the Dáil Chamber in December 2008 to mark the 90th anniversary of the election of Constance Markievicz, we had a speech read out in the Chamber that she had given to the Irish Women's Franchise League during the campaign to get votes for women. She spoke of the need for women to wear short skirts, stout boots and to carry a revolver when they were campaigning for votes. Perhaps that was somewhat over militant but it illustrated the mood of the time.

In the brief time available I wish to first commend the Minister of State for organising the PolskaÉire festival and for taking this great initiative in conjunction with the Polish community in Ireland with the FAI and other stakeholders including city councils. I congratulate him on the success of the festival. I also wish to talk more generally about integration and new communities. We know from census 2011 that there are 540,000 people who are not Irish citizens resident in Ireland, which is approximately 12% to 15% of the population. In fact, nearly three quarters of the non-Irish population are from the UK or the EU and from within the EU the biggest number are Polish citizens. Since 2011 more than 59,000 people have been granted Irish citizenship.

A very important achievement of the Government is that when it came into office in 2011 there was a backlog of more than 22,000 citizenship applications unprocessed on a ministerial desk. The former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, described in this House the stasis that had taken hold where nobody was processing routine applications. It was his initiative to start the citizenship ceremonies which have been so successful all over the country. The processing time for citizenship applications has reduced from 31 months to fewer than six months and the citizenship ceremonies themselves are hugely important in making people feel a sense of pride, ownership and that they have a stake in the country to which they have chosen to pledge their allegiance. It is a great improvement on the previous system. I have many friends who had made citizenship applications which were granted in a District Court at the end of a long list with absolutely no ceremony or sense that one was being welcomed into the community. The ceremony has been a very important initiative in itself that has fostered greater integration.

Many other important initiatives have been carried out on integration and immigration law reform in the lifetime of the Government. The British-Irish visa scheme is very important in allowing a single visa for both Britain and Ireland for people from abroad. The civilianisation of the immigration service has freed up members of the Garda for other duties. Another very important measure is the legislative reform of the asylum system. The protection Bill is to be introduced shortly by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald. She has already had Cabinet approval in principle for that. We are due to have pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill in the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence shortly after Easter. I look forward to that because it is very important that we would reform the asylum system. I am aware it is a subject close to the Minister of State's heart, as is direct provision, which we have spoken about in this House many times.

I again welcome the establishment last October of the protection process working group which is due to report soon, and which we very much hope will make recommendations for reform of the direct provision system. It must be noted that the number of people in direct provision has fallen. There has been a particular effort to move families out of direct provision, which is important and welcome.

Other issues that have had to be handled in a crisis response followed from the closure of private language schools. Many international students were left high and dry by the sudden closure of those schools. Concerted efforts have been made to ensure that those students are looked after and that they are not simply left in the lurch when the schools closed.

Another issue on which the Minister of State and I have worked, and on which the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence has done a great deal of work in terms of integration, is that of recognition of Traveller ethnicity. Members are aware that the committee recommended that the Government would recognise Traveller ethnicity. We learned from our hearings with experts that this would not require statutory change and that a declaration by the Minister for Justice and Equality on behalf of the Government would suffice. We have made the recommendation and the Minister of State will continue to work towards achieving that aim because it is an important integration matter, albeit that it does not relate to new communities.

I am aware the Minister of State will address the national integration strategy. I very much welcome the fact that the review was announced last year before the Minister of State's office came into being and that there would be a review of Ireland's approach to the integration of migrants. A cross-departmental group was established in that regard. More than 80 submissions have been made from a wide range of NGOs, groups and individuals on the development of the national integration strategy. Consultation sessions have taken place and a draft strategy is being prepared. I look forward very much to hearing from the Minister of State about that.

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, on the work he has done. I also commend those involved in the organisation of the PolskaÉire festival. I look forward to many more such festivals in the years to come.