Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 655: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if he will identify the members of the national advisory committee on racism; the criteria upon which the members were selected; the selection procedure followed; the persons who were invited to nominate members to the committee; the persons who responded to this invitation; the remit of the committee; and the frequency with which the committee meets. [9882/05]

Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)
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I understand that the Deputy is referring to the steering group for the national action plan against racism. I announced the membership of this group on 10 March 2005 and details can be found in the media centre,press release of 10 March 2005, of my Department's website at www.justice.ie. The membership of the steering group is as follows:

Ms Lucy Gaffney, Chair,

Mr. Niall Crowley, CEO of the Equality Authority*

Mr. Michael Farrell, Irish Human Rights Commission*

Mr. Philip Watt, National Consultative Committee on Racism & Interculturalism*

Ms Maria Cronin, Irish Business and Employers Confederation*

Mr. David Joyce, Irish Congress of Trade Unions*

Ms Niamh McCrea, Community & Voluntary Pillar*

Ms Mary McGreal, Irish Farmer's Association*

Mr. Aiden Lloyd, Area Development Management*

Dr. Peter Humphreys, Institute of Public Administration*

Mr. John Haskins, Reception and Integration Agency, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

Sr. Breege Keenan, Vincentian Refugee Centre

Ms Julia Sweeney, Galway Travellers Support Group

Mr. Daniel Pelou, Galway Independent Newspaper

Mr. Chinedu Onyejelem, Editor, Metro Eireann

Ms Lynn Jackson, Holocaust Memorial Day Committee

Dr. Mazhar Ali Bari, Department of Physics, Trinity College Dublin

Mr. Garrett Byrne, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform

In establishing the group, my concern was to ensure that it possesses a combination of expertise, sufficient to deal with the challenges of accommodating a more diverse Irish society, and representativeness, sufficiently broad to deal with the range of issues associated with minority groups in Irish society. The organisations identified by an asterisk above were asked by me to nominate persons as members of the group. I understand the chairman intends that the steering group will meet every two to three months. She has, as a working method, arranged for the establishment of sub-groups to ensure progress under the national action plan. The groups will meet as necessary to complete these tasks.