David Stanton

Mr Stanton said: “Racism affects many people living in Ireland. Research shows people of non-white ethnicities experience higher levels of discrimination than other groups when looking for work, in the workplace, and when accessing services from both public and private service providers.

“This persists despite strong legal protections in Ireland against racial discrimination. The new Anti-Racism Committee will review and make recommendations on strengthening the Government’s approach to combating racism, building on the actions currently included in the Migrant Integration Strategy.”

The committee’s work will have two strands:

(i) a public sector strand to allow for more in-depth discussions of what needs to be done by public sector organisations and how it can be done, and

(ii) an expert strand that will consider how to develop a clear understanding of racism, where it occurs, and what can be done to combat it, drawing on international experience.

The new Committee will be established later this year and will include representatives of the public, private and voluntary sector and expert views. It will hold a stakeholder dialogue to assess the latest evidence and to identify the views of wider civil society, the business sector, media and other relevant parties. The Committee will also help to generate ideas for reducing racist abuse in the public sphere.

The announcement comes as Mr Stanton submitted the progress report to Government on the Migrant Integration Strategy 2017-2020. The Strategy Committee, chaired by him since its publication in 2017, is the Government’s framework for tackling barriers to integration and promoting intercultural awareness.

It includes actions to combat racism, including strengthening our laws against hate crime; actions by An Garda Síochána to address the under-reporting of racist crime; a commitment from local authorities on the early removal of racist graffiti; and Government funding for anti-racism interventions.

The key finding of the Progress Report is the importance of the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to successful integration, and the benefits it brings to all aspects of Irish life.

The progress report, published today, is available on the website of the Department of Justice and Equality.