David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 195: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the way in which he has taken into account the ethnic origin of families; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6323/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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It is important that in developing supports for our growing immigrant population, we learn from both the positive and negative aspects of the experience of our own emigrants. It was this in part which prompted the Irish EU Presidency, with the support of the EU Commission, to host an international conference entitled Reconciling Mobility and Social Inclusion — the Role of Employment and Social Policies in April of last year, which included participation by representatives of Irish emigrants. A report on the proceedings of this conference is currently being finalised and will be published shortly and made available also on the website of the office for social inclusion in my Department.

The exchanges of experience, information and expertise at the conference is designed to help member states, in the context of preparing their national action plans to promote social inclusion, to further develop policies and programmes to support immigrants and their families, including ethnic minorities.

The European Council has asked that these national action plans should "highlight more clearly the risk of poverty and social exclusion faced by some men and women as a result of immigration". An evaluation of the existing national action plans is due by end June and the next full plan is due for submission to the EU Commission in 2006.

The specific issue of immigrant families of immigrants also arose in the context of another Irish Presidency conference on families, change and European social policy held in Dublin in May 2004, given that growing ethnic diversity in society is a key challenge to be addressed in developing supports for families. The issue also arose in the nationwide consultation on family policy in the run up to the tenth anniversary of the international year of the family in 2004 on which a report, Families and Family Life in Ireland: Challenges for the Future, has been published. Officials of my Department were also active participants in a conference organised in December 2003 by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism on family and ethnicity, the proceedings of which were published in December 2004 in a special edition of the committee's journal.

These developments illustrate the ways in which the need to address the issue of ethnic diversity has been highlighted at both national and international levels.

There is a particular need, for the families of ethnic minorities to be supported. This requires raising the awareness of cultural diversity among all service providers and policy makers, and of the need for cultural sensitivity in dealing with family members of different ethnic minorities and of the special supports they need. Equally there is a need to educate people generally of these realities in the interests of promoting social cohesion and of combating prejudice, discrimination and racism.

All these considerations are being fully taken into account in the current preparations of strategies to support families in a changing society, and in the context of the next national action plan to promote social inclusion.

More specifically, information on entitlements is a key requirement. My Department allocated funding of €60,000 in 2003 to the Immigrant Council of Ireland towards the publication of an information handbook on immigrant rights and entitlements in Ireland. This handbook has been very well received by all the agencies providing information to immigrants. In 2004, my Department allocated a further €60,000 to the Immigrant Council of Ireland to translate this information handbook into various other languages. A translation service is also provided at my Department's own local offices in areas where there are large immigrant populations.