Minister rules out ‘ethnic profiling’ of people questioned by gardaí

I HAVE been asked by the Minister for Integration, John Curran, to respond to your news brief headlined ‘Ethnic profiling in Ireland’ (January 13).

In it, the Nasc Irish Immigrant Support Centre claimed the EU Minorities and Discrimination Report demonstrated that An Garda Síochána is employing what is known as “ethnic profiling” in deciding who should be stopped and questioned and suggests that the gardaí should introduce a system of recording the ethnic origin of every person stopped and questioned so that subsequent analysis could prove or disprove the use by gardaí of ethnic profiling in their daily work.

The report does state that a high proportion, of Sub-Saharan African respondents – 59% – were stopped by the gardaí in the 12-month period preceding the interview.