Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I second the amendment proposed by my colleague, Senator Ó Clochartaigh, on the humanitarian crisis in the direct provision system.

I am from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan. While Paddy O'Reilly never came back to us, to reference the song, we have had a multicultural society in Ballyjamesduff for the past number of years. I welcome all of those new communities. They have integrated well into the community which has enriched the lives of the people in my town as well as the county of Cavan. Before proceeding, I welcome the people in the Gallery.

I will not labour the point but shall reiterate some of the points made by my colleague. In terms of the monitoring reports on integration produced by the ESRI and the integration centre, I will highlight some of the main points mentioned in its most recent report as it is important to put them on the record of the Seanad.

In terms of the report, the authors found the following - non-Irish nationals experience higher rates of unemployment than Irish nationals; there is no difference between English speaking and non-Irish national students and Irish students in mean scores for reading ability nor is there any significant difference between the two groups regarding achievements in maths; both consistent poverty and at-risk-of-poverty rates were similar for Irish and non-Irish nationals; non-Irish nationals have a slightly lower median income than Irish nationals; and non-Irish nationals tended to report better health than Irish nationals. However, it needs to be borne in mind that there is a greater proportion of young people among non-Irish nationals than Irish nationals.

I wish to congratulate the Minister of State on the success of PolskaÉire in 2015. From all the recollections and reports I have heard about it I believe it went down well. I cannot go too much into the football element myself because I am not an avid football player. I have two left feet and if I played football I would probably end up tripping myself on the pitch.