No culture of racism in gardaí, says Taoiseach

The removal of children from Roma families after their physical features prompted suspicion does not expose institutionalised racism in the gardaí, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted.

In his most pointed intervention yet into the controversy, Mr Kenny cleared the force of harbouring a culture of racist attitudes within its ranks.

“I don’t accept at all that there are any institutionalised racial tendencies in the gardaí,” he said.

The comments came after the gardaí and state agencies came under heavy criticism from anti-racism organisations and children’s rights advocates for the way they conducted themselves in the removal of two children, one in Athlone and another in Dublin, in recent days.

Both children were returned to their families, with one undergoing DNA testing.

In a landmark British report in 1999, an official state probe found London’s Metropolitan Police to be in the grip of “institutionalised racism”, indicated by the way it had failed to bring the killers of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence to justice.

Mr Kenny insisted no such situation existed in the Irish force and said: “This is about children, it should not be about any group of children, any minority group of children, any categorisation of children, it’s about children, and there is a very careful balance to be struck here between information being made available that might give rise to concerns about welfare and health and the law of the land.”

Two reviews into the action by gardaí and health officials, which saw a seven- year-old girl taken from her home for 48 hours and a two-year-old boy from his home in Athlone in the Midlands overnight, have been ordered.

The Children’s Ombudsman Emily Logan will be furnished with two reports in two weeks’ time.

Both youngsters concerned have blonde hair and blue eyes while their parents have darker complexions and hair, which is not out of the ordinary in the Roma community.

Amnesty International has waded into the controversy with demands for an independent inquiry.

Travellers’ advocacy group Pavee Point has also called for an inquiry after it accused gardaí and health chiefs of racial profiling.

A lawyer for the seven- year-old girl’s parents said they believed the authorities had no proper basis for taking her into state care for two nights.

A member of the public raised concerns about her appearance by contacting a TV3 reporter on Facebook and he in turn reported it.