Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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I am grateful to the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for coming personally to deal with this matter because it is one of tremendous importance, and we know how topical it is in light of recent demonstrations. "Demonstration" is a very soft word for what has been happening in places such as Ashtown, where there have been attacks on people from different national, ethnic or racial groups. There is a significant risk that as a country we are allowing ourselves to go down a road where racism is becoming normal or somehow quasi-acceptable. What are we going to do to tackle that?

I acknowledge the presence in the Public Gallery of Emer O'Neill, an anti-racism activist who has been vocal, as a black Irish woman, in talking about her lived experience. While I note the bravery of my colleague, Senator Flynn, in respect of these kinds of issues, almost all the rest of us in this Chamber cannot understand the lived experience of people in this society who look different, come from different backgrounds or are of different ethnicities or races. When they go for a job interview or anywhere else, it is immediately obvious, in most cases, that they are different. The result of that is often discrimination, even if that is unconscious on the part of the person carrying out that discrimination. Almost everything about them, whether that is the way they look to their name, their background, where they attended college or whatever it might be, can tell an employer or someone else they are dealing with that they are a little different from an "Irish" person. That has resulted, in a number of instances about which I have been told, in people changing their names, for example.When they then go into an interview for a job, the employer realises that the person is not in fact who they expected. Emer O'Neill may be a case in point, because she sounds like an ordinary Irish person and she is mixed-race. If she goes into an interview, she is different from what the interviewer is expecting. This can have a knock-on effect for a person. This is what we are talking about when we talk about lived experience and the fact that we, or certainly I, cannot understand what that is. The reality, though, is that it has a huge impact on individuals, but also across society. One of the major issues is that it forces people to change who they are, what they have been and where they have come from. This is a shame, because one of the great benefits of cultural diversity is that it enhances our society and makes us stronger as a nation and a community. It renders this a nicer place to live if we are not totally homogenous in terms of the make-up of our society.

The other danger that comes with this situation is that if we let the message go out to our young people that somehow diversity is a bad thing or that somehow people of colour or people who are ethnically or racially different do not occupy positions of power or leadership, then they do not learn that this is a normal thing. They do not learn that it is perfectly normal to have people who are different from us in roles that involve leadership and power. Those young people who go to America or Britain for jobs, for example, and find themselves in a situation where their manager or their boss, or whoever, is ethnically different somehow do not understand how they are going to deal with that person. We are, therefore, doing a disservice to our young people if we do not deal with this issue.

Regarding what the Minister's Department needs to do, and I know he is strong on this issue of integration, we also know there is an anti-racism action plan. I understand it is ready to go and yet we have not seen it. This has never been more urgent than it is today. We have seen what happened in Ashtown even in the last week. This anti-racism action plan has never been as urgent as it is now. Where is this anti-racism action plan? What will the Minister's Department put in place to help us all understand the dangers and the harm that racism does? Equally, what are we doing to support those who are subjected to racial or ethnic abuse, to show them they are welcome, that the Government supports them and to put in place measures to ensure they know they have everyone's support, and not just that of a small number of people?

Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Ms O'Neill to the Public Gallery. I compliment her on the great work she does. I call the Minister.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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I thank the Senator for raising this really important issue. I did want the opportunity to speak to it myself. In my follow-up at the end, I will come back to some of the recent incidents. In the last 12 months, however, we have seen the largest humanitarian effort made in the history of the State. Since the start of last year, more than 85,000 people have arrived in Ireland fleeing war and persecution. In these difficult circumstances, Ireland has provided shelter and security. This is something we can be proud of as a country. However, there is clear evidence that racism exists in our country and we know there are some people who feel its impacts in their day-to-day lives. The Government has responded to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis in several ways in the past year. Several existing programmes also empower communities by funding anti-racism and integration activities throughout the State.

It is important to say that the response to racism is a State-wide and country-wide response. No one Department will have the monopoly in terms of this response. Regarding the actions taking place within my Department, we have a range of funding streams in place to support locally-organised diversity and equality projects. We have the asylum, migration and integration fund, the communities integration fund, the national integration fund and the European Social Fund, ESF. In more specific areas, we provide funding to gender equality groups and to Traveller and Roma organisations to organise local diversity and quality events. There is, therefore, a wide range of funding mechanisms to support primarily local responses, recognising that it is also often these local conversations that are the most effective in tackling racism.

Turning to the Senator's question on the national action plan, in 2020 the Government established the independent anti-racism committee with a view to strengthening the Government's approach to combating individual and institutional racism, and build on existing strategies. This was part of Ireland's response to a UN global call to tackle racism. Extensive public engagement and consultation was undertaken by the anti-racism committee across 2021 and 2022. The committee has submitted its final report to my Department and I and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, intend to bring the national action plan against racism to Cabinet imminently. Our plan, and I spoke about this at the UN last week, is to launch it in early March. This is an important step. It will be our first detailed national action plan against racism since 2008. This has been a gap in our State's response to the issue of racism, one that will be filled rapidly.

On some other responses on the criminal law side, which I think are also important, as the Senator knows the Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences) Bill 2022 is before the Oireachtas. It will update laws on criminalising hate speech and legislate against hate crimes for the first time in Irish law. Although hate speech is currently an offence, the legislation is complex and has not delivered in a meaningful way. The new legislation will enable prosecution of offences which are motivated by prejudice against protected characteristics, including race, nationality or ethnic origin. Obviously, we know that much of the recent rhetoric has been focused on migrants. We do have a migrant integration strategy and this works to promote social cohesion across the State. There are mechanisms within it for the State, Government Departments and State agencies to support migrants and their wider integration in society.

As I said earlier, financial supports are important, but it is supporting communities and on-the-ground engagement with people who may have heard incorrect rumours and lies and demonstrating to them that they are falsehoods that is often the most effective way to tackle some of the incidents we have seen recently.

Barry Ward (Fine Gael)
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I appreciate what the Minister said. I acknowledge the work his Department has done in integration and in accommodating people who have come here fleeing situations. I also recognise what he said about funds. He also said that it is not any one Department's responsibility. This is, of course, true. As I look at the students from the Loreto school in Dalkey sitting in the Public Gallery here, though, I wonder what we are doing to educate children in this regard? What are we doing in terms of the national anti-racism action plan? I appreciate this is coming to the Cabinet now and that is great, but what in that action plan is going to provide for education for people so that we start at the very beginning to show people where things lie? I say this because the real danger, as things stand, when we look at what happened in Ashtown, for example, is that we are allowing a them-and-us situation to evolve, where Irish people, mar dhea, are being pitched against people who are not Irish. This is really dangerous and really damaging. The thing many of us do not understand is that sometimes people who are ethnically different are accused of playing the race card, as it is called. They never want to do that. They just want to live their lives and be part of our community and if we had any sense we would realise that we gain enormous benefit from their being part of this community. Let us, therefore, do everything we can to ensure they can play that role.

Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party)
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It is important that we call out these recent incidents. People are entitled to protest and to have a different view from the Government's. This is absolutely fair and this happens. It is really important, though, to call out several recent incidents. Senator Ward referred to an attack on migrants in Ashtown, which was fuelled by lies put on social media regarding someone having been the victim of an assault. In recent days, we have also seen a building in Dublin set on fire. Again, this was as a result of lies put around by far-right groups. There is a deep and disturbing strand of racism behind several of these incidents. We must be very explicit about this. It is worrying and requires an all-of-government response. It requires parties across the Oireachtas to respond. In my engagement with the Government and the Opposition, I recognise that many people are showing leadership in their local communities and at some risk to themselves because politicians across the spectrum in recent weeks have had their houses and offices picketed. I wish to recognise, therefore, that there is leadership being shown across the spectrum, but this needs to continue.

Paul Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I also welcome the students from the Loreto school in Dalkey. I wish them the very best on their tour of the Oireachtas today.