State's plan to tackle racism 'excluded from programme for government' 

Dr Ebun Joseph: 'As a nation, we signed up to a national action plan. It begs the question when it is not included in the programme for government, how conscious are the government of hate?' Picture: Moya Nolan

The special rapporteur on the State’s plan to tackle racism says she is concerned the plan is not included in the programme for government.

Dr Ebun Joseph, a race relations consultant and director of the Institute of Antiracism and Black Studies, was appointed in July as the special rapporteur for the National Plan Against Racism.

The plan was approved by the Cabinet almost two years ago, following anti-migrant protests in Cork and Dublin in the wake of the influx of international protection applicants.

It was the first such plan since 2008 and was to be led by the then minister of state for community development Joe O’Brien.

It incorporated a range of areas for action, including schools, health, housing, policing and the labour market.

In recent days, Mr O’Brien, who lost his seat in the election, posted on social media that the lack of reference of the plan in the programme for government was “very concerning”.

Dr Joseph said: “As a nation, we signed up to a national action plan. It begs the question when it is not included in the programme for government, how conscious are the government of hate?” 

She pledged to raise the issue with the government because she said the plan cannot “go into a big void”.

She said there was a lot in the plan but there were a number of particularly important planks, including education.

We want to see how we can use education to get racism training into schools. We also want to look at data, which is so important. If we don’t have data, it is impossible to know the extent of racism as a problem. 

“Ethnicity data should be collected by doctors, by hospitals, for example. When covid happened, in the UK, we were able to see data to show that ethnic minority groups were dying at a higher rate. We do not have an equivalent of that here.” 

Dr Joseph said policing and reporting of racism incidents were very important too, explaining people are slow to come forward to report having been targeted in racist incidents.

“The EU report last year showed that nine out of ten people do not report racism. That is astronomical.” 

Employment is another key area in helping to address racism in Ireland, according to Dr Joseph.

She said there were incidents of discrimination in Ireland, with people finding it difficult to find employment because of racism.

She is now planning to seek a meeting with government representatives to seek commitment to the plan.

In referencing racism in the programme for government, the document pledged “through sustained and positive action aimed at eliminating racism and promoting inclusivity, we can better support those who have been affected by discrimination, racism and inequality”.

Among its commitments were to “continue to implement training programmes within our education system to address racism and unconscious bias, fostering a more inclusive environment for all students and reducing susceptibility to extremist views”.

It also contains a commitment to “launch national and local community campaigns to highlight the positive impacts of migration and to challenge disinformation”.

Garda figures showed reported hate crimes increased in 2023 by 7.5% to 548 incidents, on the back of a 22% increase in previous years.