According to iReport.ie, there were 600 reports received from the public about racism in 2022. This included 223 reports about criminal offences, 190 reports about discrimination, and 42 reports of other recordable racist incidents. There were also 136 further reports about racist hate speech. Considering the multitude of incidents that are never reported, the ISCP welcome the successful implementation of the National Action Plan Against Racism (NAPAR).
The five key priorities of the action plan are outlined below;
- Being Safe and Being Heard – supporting people who experience racism by protecting them from racist incidents and crimes
- Being Equal – addressing ethnic inequalities in education, employment, housing, health etc.
- Being Seen and Taking Part – facilitating and promoting minority participation in communities, media, politics and any other areas that are under-represented
- Being Counted – measuring the impacts of racism by gathering data to build a better understanding and to establish causes of racism
- Being Together – combating racism through policies, programmes and legislation while building public understanding of everyone’s role in fostering racial equality
The Government has already developed an implementation plan for the first year and will be monitored by an independent Special Rapporteur on Racial Equality and Racism. A Co-ordination Committee will be appointed to co-ordinate activity under the plan and gather the data necessary for monitoring the implementation of the actions. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth will Chair the Committee, which will comprise of local authorities and representatives of government departments responsible for actions under the plan.
The plan acknowledges the intersectionality between racism and multiple forms of oppression but unfortunately does not specifically mention the intersectionality with ageism. The report does reference the specific need for the participation of affected groups during the development, implementation and monitoring of government policy which is one of our consistent, main objectives. We sincerely hope that older members of ethnic minority groups will not be disproportionately affected and will also be considered during the implementation of NAPAR.
