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THE ONE CONSTANT IN Irish public policy-making is the ability to delay, deny and prevaricate until something blows up in our faces.
The response to the property bubble, the abuse of children, and discrimination in the north all happened too late from a policy perspective, and what began as a challenge ended up as a fiasco that needed to be fixed.
Despite the soul searching , blame attribution and cries of “never again”, over the past few years it appears that our little country is once again sleepwalking itself into a colossal and expensive mess.
Reflect on this: in your day-to-day life, how many teachers, Gardaí, TDs, councillors, TV presenters, business leaders, media commentators and other key influencers do you see who are immigrants? I would suspect few or none is the experience for most people in Ireland.
Yet the most recent census shows that 17 per cent of the population is foreign born. It’s like almost one in five of our citizens are invisible. Aside from token representation, immigrants are absent from the power, decision making and consultation on the policy, practices and operation of the State.
Racism in Ireland is underreported
In addition,studies and surveys have shown that discrimination and racism in Ireland is a chronic problem.
On a per person basis the official figures suggest that England and Wales is nearly forty times more racist than Ireland. This flies in the face of the European study which suggests Ireland is more than twice as racist.
The frequency and experience of racism can be seen as a symptom of poor integration.
Ireland has a choice
Ireland has a choice: it can follow most of its history and be reactive to events and changes in terms of public policy or it can change the way it works, recognise the huge potential Ireland’s immigrants offer and provide supports that ensure their full participation in the economic, political, sporting and social sectors of the country.
While we recognise the serious pressure on the States finance’s our concern is the need to promote and facilitate integration has been dropped by this Government.
Since they have come to office the Civil Service’s cross departmental Integration Committee has never met, the Ministerial Council on Integration has also never met and, unlike the previous government, no junior Minister has been given the responsibility for integration.
These necessary co-ordination mechanisms cost little to run and yet they have been dropped by the new government.
There is some good work being done; Minister Quinn’s review of patronage is positive in promoting diversity, Minister Shatter has been active and effective in his area, and his Office of the Promotion of Integration despite dwindling budgets make a strong impact.
However our overarching view is that there is no helicopter view being taken by the government to promote integration or eliminate the structural discrimination in State structures and institutions that prevent the meaningful participation by migrants. This can drift on but the longer it takes for migrants to feel fully involved, the more likely it will that they feel excluded and the cost of that social dislocation will be enormous.
Killian Forde is the CEO of The Integration Centre, Ireland’s only national organisation focusing on Integration policy.
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Hopefully people don’t take too many liberties, and we can all move together to keep this virus suppressed, while returning to some sort of normality.
@Mark Cooper: are you related to the gooch
@Mark Cooper: My sentiments exactly!
, who actually is this phase for, is it for the decent people who tried to comply with the law is it for the black lives matter people who don’t seem to comply with the law. it would be nice to have one law or rule everybody complied with. Its not going to happen is it because there’s nobody in forcing anything.
@Braonain Proinseas: Are you implying the “black lives matter people” aren’t decent? Cuz fighting for justice and raising awareness of inhumanity in Ireland and the US seems pretty decent to me. I think a better choice of words would’ve been “compliant people” and “protestors” (since everyone should be a black lives matter person).
@Dino: No, I’m talking about the inhumanity and injustice of systematic racism that has oppressed people of colour. And the cases in Carrigaline/Limerick, as unfortunate and horrible as they are, have nothing to do with race. You’re clearly trying to make my comment into something it’s not.
@Dino: unfortunately I can’t post a screenshot here but if you check out Twitter you will find a post from the boy’s friend who confirms that it was not a race related attack.
@Olive McClaw: The point as you well know is that there are other ways of protesting than breaking government restrictions and putting lives at risk here. Playing on use of words dilutes your argument
@Olive McClaw: black lives matter only when it’s a white person against a black person, where are all these protests when the blacks kill each other ?? Most of these protests were hijacked by sc**bag rioters. Why was is ok to get together in their 1000’s to protest and it’s not ok to have more than 10 people at a funeral ??
@Olive McClaw: well said.
@Olive McClaw: flutes,flutes disregarding everyone elses rights as they deem theirs to be on a higher plain,yup,flutes would work equally well ?
@Mary Downes Montcho: if it was a group of white kids attacking a black lad,you would do well to sell that theory ?
@Olive McClaw: it’s such a pity olive we Irish couldn’t do that and show our humanity and raise awareness of this issue when young white Irish lads died in suspicious circumstances in Irish police custody the Terrance wheelocks, the johner moloneys and so many more if I start naming them my comment will be deleted again look them up.
No one cares because they had criminal records an they are quiet simply “white”..
i don’t know why we have to keep apologising and felling sorry, black ppl are not oppressed I havnt seen it in my lifetime and I doubt any of the BLM have had to endure any oppression in there lifetime. Making them feel like they have did you see what they were writing in there WhatsApp about the whites stab them an rob there white sl*ts.
But no story about that.
@Mary Downes Montcho: unfortunately I can’t post a screen shot here but anyone that’s on FB can find the BLM WhatsApp group messages i suggest you find it if you haven’t already and have a look at what they were saying and tell me it’s not about race.
@Olive McClaw: OK but if it was a recorded attack of a load of white lads attacking a prone black lad on the ground with a Snapchat name of whatever the white alternative name of “niggz” or whatever it was do you think that a lot of people, media included wouldn’t paint it as a racial attack? Especially in the last few weeks. It it undeniably thuggery but it could easily be construed as racist.
@Olive McClaw: It has everything to do with race when young black men are attacked by white men but not when young black men take out their anger and attack young white men? Give over you bald faced hypocrite
@The Boss: I understand your sentiment and awareness should be made about these crimes too. White people have faced oppression but the difference is it was never because of the colour of their skin. Irish people were oppressed because they were Irish not because they were white. And believe me, oppression definitely exists even if you haven’t seen it. Research it, learn the history as you’ve learned about Irish history. Then you might understand. And when we say Black Lives Matter, we’re not saying all black people are perfect human beings. They should be subject to the same judicial system that everyone else is. If they commit a crime they should punished like everyone else is. But by no means should their crimes and anti social behaviour be representative of the entire black community.
@Alan: Yes, I agree. The protests were badly organised. But my point was that they were protesting for a great cause, perhaps not in the best way, but it’s unfair to call them indecent.
@AL T: The protests are for clearly racist agenda attacks on people of colour. When black people attack each other, there isn’t a racist agenda. When a black person attacks a white person there can be a racist agenda but that’s usually not the case. When a white person attacks a black person it more than likely has a racist agenda. And in America, it always seems to have a racist agenda. I agree with you regarding the protests, they could have been executed better or done another way. Not sure why you’re mentioning the rioters, there were no riots in Ireland. And many of the riots have been shown to be started by the police themselves in America.
@Olive McClaw: precisely what I’m implying
@Olive McClaw: “When a black person attacks a white person there can be a racist agenda but that’s usually not the case. When a white person attacks a black person it more than likely has a racist agenda. And in America, it always seems to have a racist agenda.” <- this is what is wrong with these protests, people get attacked all the time and there us just as much racism in the black community as the white, we are all people, we are all the same and we all deserve to be treated the same! You just presume a racist agenda when it's white on black like the killing of floyd which it now looks like had nothing to do with racism since the cop in question is married to an asian woman. Are black men in America more likely to be involved in violent crime than white men? Yes is the answer if you take the proportion of white males involved in crime compared to black males. Is this likely resultant from a culture and a socio economic problem in america? Yes probably but that doesn't make people racist to be fearful of young black men dressed like thugs, it makes them just as correct as they are to be fearful of gangs of young white men dressed like thugs the same as we are here on the streets of Dublin, Cork, galway l, limerick or any other city/large urban area.
@Mary Downes Montcho: You don’t think there was any racial anger in that man’s decision to stab a prone white man on the ground repeatedly? You’re having a laugh surely. But hey thats just what it looks like the same as the floyd incident. Its OK to jump all over that rare incident but not this one as we don’t want to be accusing a black person in the wrong as that could be perceived as racism?
I’m 30 odd kms from my mother’s house and I’m going to see her and I don’t care. My family and I have been holed up and doing our best to stay home and within the restrictions since the kids finished school.
@Fergal O’Hagan: so why change what your doing now. My family have been doing exactly the same thing , my parents are 23kms away and my in-laws are 2hr drive away. We’ve missed them but just because the restrictions have eased and yes some people will take the piss doesn’t mean you should just throw the towel. Sadly not everyone has common sense but If we all just give up then we’ll be back at phase 1 again.
@Fergal O’Hagan: So you pick up thevirus and pass iit to yout mother, very sensible
@Fergal O’Hagan: well if shes in the same county, ur fine….all within the rules.
While I didn’t necessarily agree with the direction our government took in dealing with this crises I followed all the advice to the T. Well feck it now, I’m not in the vulnerable category and nobody in my family is so if thousands of people can go off and do their own thing then I’m not going to bother listening to the advice either. I’m having a big house party next weekend with 30 invited over for homemade pizza and a few beers and some decent socialising for the first time in months. Good luck to the rest of the country but I’m not going to be the fool playing by the rules any more for the common good.
@Dino: so because some people went out and peacefully protested in the name of social justice while wearing masks you’re going to spit your dummy out and have a party. Fair play to you
@Dino:
Those type of bars and grills are down for the moment, Dino.
@Dino: An ruin the good work that you have done and oma=an and bitched your way through
@Dino: what do you want ? A Gold Medal
@Dino: is that an invitation??
@Lisa Quinn: not quiet got around psychologically to inviting people i don’t know well yet but looking forward to getting back to near normal.
@Stephen Brady: It wasn’t some people it was thousands and it wasn’t prevented by our government. They shut down businesses causing people to lose their livelihoods, they shut down all social outlets too in the name of public health and we all stupidly went along with them as it obviously isn’t that serious if they are willing to let thousands congregate for a meaningless protest against some imagined injustice in another part of the world!
@Dino: yah eeediot
@Stephen Brady: it wasn’t me who changed the emphasis on the importance of collective sacrifice to try and deal with the virus?
@Dino: yeeediot
Same for all who are flaunting the rules.
@ed w: Exactly!! Anxious times for people with routine cancer screenings all suspended. Extremely anxious time for people who already had battles with cancer(s) previously to be left in Limbo this past 3 months – which will of course create another waiting list backlog…something that has become so wrongfully commomplace throughout our public health system will now also affect the private system…how long will the ‘catch-up’ phase go on for?? The whole point of cancer screening is early detection…timely diagnosis is the whole aim of ANY screening programme. Even more so for ‘surveillance’ diagnostics for cancer patients in remission!!
You have the right to catch covid and kill the relatives of your thirty guests in a fit of pique. Grow up!
cancer screenings ??
Good grief ….
What about all the commuters coming into work tomorrow? 14 on a bus from Co. Meath. Grow up.
@Linda Kennedy: Yep afraid so. But if communters wat to catchthe virus pack them in tight
@Gary Kearney: and what if you’re commuting for a medical appointment ? Should I too catch the virus cuz I’ve to get a bus?. Christ they didnt mention by phase 2 how bitter people would get.
Is Dublin a county, or do they mean, DCC, Fingal, DnL-R, SD?
People still need to be sensible and not hit the shops with the whole clan behind them..
have your say