improving government service delivery to minority ethnic ... - NCCRI

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Both the Equal Employment Act 1998 and the Equal Status Act 2000 provide for a range of protections which prohibit discrimination in the workplace and in the provision of goods and services on nine grounds. These grounds are gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. However, in relation to Government services, only some services are explicitly recognised under the Equal Status Act (such as education); whereas others have been deemed not to fall under the Equal Status Act (such as the Gardai). 215 Even the areas which are covered, such as education, have certain exemptions. 216 To ensure the implementation of these protections and provide easy access to redress in cases of discrimination or victimisation, the legislation also provided for the establishment of the Equality Authority and the Equality Tribunal. The Equality Act 2004 gave effect to more recent developments at European Union level in the area of equality protection, that is the Race Directive (2000/43/EC), the Framework Employment Directive (2000/78/EC) and the Gender Employment Equality Directive (2002/73/EC). In addition, the opportunity was taken in the Act of 2004 to introduce a number of technical improvements, including the significant development of transferring the jurisdiction in discriminatory dismissal cases from the Labour Court to the Equality Tribunal. This provides additional cohesion in the hearing of claims for redress under the Employment Equality Act. Policy is at an early stage. An important initiative in 1978 (following the European Year against Racism) was the establishment of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) which is an independent expert body working with both Government and NGOs on matters relating to racism and Interculturalism. The Irish Human Rights Commission, established in 2001 as one of the conditions of the 1998 Belfast Agreement, also plays an important role. The key publication on interculturalism to date, referred to above, Integration: a Two-Way Process dates from 1999 (although this only covers the situation of refugees), while the National Action Plan against Racism (NPAR) was published in 2005; implementation will be rolled out over a number of years. The five primary objectives underpinning the NPAR are: 215_Refer for example to Equality Tribunal decision: DEC-S2005/037 A Complainant -v- An Garda Siochána. 216_Equal Status Act Section 7(3) (c) “where the establishment is a school providing primary or post-primary education to students and the objective of the school is to provide education in an environment which promotes certain religious values, it admits persons of a particular religious denomination in preference to others or it refuses to admit as a student a person who is not of that denomination and, in the case of a refusal, it is proved that the refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school.” 217_Ireland’s social partnership programmes, which began in 1987, provide for negotiated agreements between Government, employers, trade unions, the agricultural sector and elements of the community and voluntary sector. - - - - - Effective protection and redress against racism, including a focus on discrimination, threatening behaviour and incitement to hatred. Economic inclusion and equality of opportunity, including focus on employment, the workplace and poverty. Accommodating diversity in service provision, including a focus on common outcomes, education, health, social services and childcare, accommodation and the administration of justice. Recognition and awareness of diversity, including a focus on awareness raising, the media and the arts, sport and tourism. Full participation in Irish society, including a focus on the political level, the policy level and the community level. The NPAR may be regarded as the template that will underpin a range of Government initiatives in this field for the next three years. The identification of the need to accommodate diversity in service provision is of particular importance, as is the proposed focus on measuring outcomes rather than on a ‘one size fits all’ approach. A Working Group on Equality Proofing, chaired by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness 217 now operates under the Sustaining Progress agreement with a mandate to provide for the development of mechanisms for proofing of policies and services in the public sector to avoid any unanticipated impact on any of the groups protected by equality legislation.
improving government service delivery to minority ethnic groups Chapter 4: Ireland Research Findings 114_115 This is currently a voluntary process; however under NPAR, research has been commissioned into considering a new statutory ‘positive duty’ for Ireland, including a review of existing models and legal frameworks for positive duties (or their equivalent) developed in other jurisdictions, including Northern Ireland. Ireland does not, as yet, have a definition of ‘institutional racism’ comparable to that given in the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report and which has subsequently become a key factor in formulating new British policy. Moreover, the legislation, policies and structures described above, constitute a largely ‘complaints-driven’ mechanism where the main outputs currently measured are the volume of complaints and the redress which complainants receive. New legislation in preparation In 2005 the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform published Immigration and Residence in Ireland – Outline Policy Proposals for an Immigration and Residence Bill. Intended as a discussion document, proposals for legislation will be introduced in due course. The Employment Permits Bill 2005, which is still going through the parliamentary process, is intended to provide a comprehensive statutory basis for a managed economic migration policy. This Bill is sponsored by the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. A number of issues remain to be addressed. These include various aspects of integration policy; it is likely that the establishment by the Department of Justice in 2005 of the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (INIS) as a one-stop shop for immigrants will lead to new initiatives in this area. A more detailed regime for economic migration, including the possible introduction of quotas and points-based admission systems, is also possible. Data collection issues The relative absence of data in intercensal periods presents an ongoing difficulty. While accurate data exists in the case of work permit, work visa and work authorisation holders, as well as asylum seekers, refugees and persons with leave to remain, we know little about their social conditions, economic circumstance, access to services and experiences of racism and discrimination. There is no up to date data on EU/EEA migrant workers and citizens other than those from the new EU10 states. Moreover, Directive 2004/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 will abolish residence permits for EU citizens. This will mean that little data will be obtainable on EU citizens resident in Ireland. The situation for new Accession State migrants is somewhat different only insofar as relevant PPSN data is being published regularly. As pointed out already, the usefulness of such data is limited as it is not possible to say how long such migrants remain in the country. Comprehensive data on foreign students attending Irish third level institutions is available but statistics are not published for the considerably larger number of foreign students attending private language schools. Data is not published on the number of spouses of migrant workers present in the country, either where such spouses have an automatic right to be here (for example the spouses of EU citizens), or in family reunification cases (other than refugees), where such rights are discretionary. There is no comprehensive national database giving details of migrant children enrolled in the Irish school system or related data such as patterns of absenteeism.
Page 1:
IMPROVING GOVERNMENT SERVICE DELIVE
Page 4 and 5:
About this publication This is the
Page 6 and 7:
One of the innovative elements of t
Page 8 and 9:
CHAPTER 4: IRELAND RESEARCH FINDING
Page 11 and 12:
Executive Summary 8_ title EXECUTIV
Page 13 and 14:
improving government service delive
Page 15 and 16:
Page 17 and 18:
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Chapter 1: Context 26_27 CHAPTER 1:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39:
Page 42 and 43:
It states that the long term, high
Page 44 and 45:
Demographics 78 Overview of Migrant
Page 46 and 47:
Figure 2: National Insurance Number
Page 48 and 49:
Methods A questionnaire was designe
Page 50 and 51:
- - - The Conduct of Employment Age
Page 52 and 53:
Targeting For all organisations tas
Page 54 and 55:
Case Example 2 - Health Craigavon A
Page 56 and 57:
Case Example 4 - Employment 110 Bus
Page 58 and 59:
esearch; however, it appeared that
Page 60 and 61:
The PSNI annual Human Rights confer
Page 62 and 63:
Benchmarking The issue of data coll
Page 64 and 65:
Despite the increase in recorded in
Page 66 and 67: Table 2: Breakdown of Respondents b
Page 68 and 69: Figure 4: Percentage of Respondents
Page 70 and 71: Figure 5: Ease of Providing Service
Page 72 and 73: The impact of Section 75 on organis
Page 74 and 75: Table 9: Data Collected Yes No Don
Page 76 and 77: Lack of knowledge in the health sec
Page 78 and 79: Housing In regard to housing issues
Page 81 and 82: Chapter 3: Scotland Research Findin
Page 83 and 84: improving government service delive
Page 107: improving government service delive
Page 110 and 111: Demographics Until data from the fo
Page 112 and 113: Figure 8: PPSNs Poland 103,177 55%
Page 114 and 115: Prospects for ongoing strong immigr
Page 118 and 119: Methodology The NPAR will undoubted
Page 120 and 121: In hospitals the provision of inter
Page 122 and 123: Awareness of legislation and policy
Page 124 and 125: e expected to pay the non-EU fee, w
Page 126 and 127: Interviews carried out with employe
Page 128 and 129: Official agencies and policies in t
Page 130 and 131: Targeting The need to target ethnic
Page 132 and 133: Employment By and large Irish immig
Page 134 and 135: (continued from previous page) The
Page 136 and 137: An anti-racism intercultural progra
Page 138 and 139: Conclusions The Irish statutory sec
Page 141 and 142: Chapter 5: Conference Discussions 1
Page 145: improving government service delive
Page 148 and 149: and inequality and black and ethnic
Page 150 and 151: Understanding and tackling racism w
Page 152 and 153: As discussed above, there is a lack
Page 154 and 155: It is important that training on se
Page 156 and 157: - - - - - - - Existing UK migration
Page 158 and 159: “ …the four As that the previou
Page 161 and 162: Appendix 1: Research Project Struct
Page 163 and 164: Appendix 2: List of Organisations I
Page 167 and 168:
Appendix 3: Recommended Data Collec
Page 169 and 170:
Glossary 166_167 Glossary 267_Scott
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Acronyms 170_171 Acronyms280 280_In
Page 176:
This research has been carried out
show all

improving government service delivery to minority ethnic ... - NCCRI

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?