Lucy Michael: Data on ethnicity will be essential to success of new action plan on racism

In the absence of statutory recording of racism in education, health, housing and other public services, there are few measures of racism which allow public services to identify and address the direct and indirect discrimination that ethnic minorities experience

Equality Minister Roderic O'Gorman at the launch of the National Action Plan Against Racism on Tuesday.

A new National Action Plan Against Racism was launched this week, 15 years after the last plan expired. The plan sets out a necessarily ambitious range of areas for action, including schools, health, housing, policing and the labour market. 

Also published this week was the annual report by the Irish Network Against Racism on reported racist incidents which has, for the last decade, provided a necessary correction to the absence of State data.