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

Awareness of legislation and policy
In general there appears to be a good level of awareness among health service professionals of key Irish
legislation and policy. However, there was a lower level of awareness of internal policy on race relations in
terms of health staff who are themselves from a minority ethnic background and in terms of health service
clients from a minority ethnic background.
The HSE mid-western region has policies and practices for recording and dealing with complaints about racist
incidents. In the Department of Health there are policies concerning bullying and harassment; racism would be
included as one of these but there is no specific policy. A senior Department of Health official said it would be
unusual to have immigrant staff as yet in management as it would take at least six years in the civil service to
advance to that level; it is something he would like to see happening. The CWOs said there are no immigrant
staff where they work, but felt nonetheless that there are equal opportunities for progression for all employees
in the Health services.
Cross-sectoral measures
Growing attention is being paid to cross-sectoral approaches as an effective means of addressing the needs
of minority ethnic communities in a comprehensive way. NAPS (the National Anti-Poverty Strategy) is a ready
example here, while the establishment of an Interdepartmental working group – with representation from
the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Health and Children, Education and Science, and
Environment and Local Government – reflects a very real effort to address all aspects of refugee resettlement in
an integrated and sustainable manner.
Education
As pointed out earlier, the structure of the Irish education system is unusual and poses specific challenges
for minority ethnic groups. On the one hand, the vast majority of schools are of one particular religious
denomination, something which makes it possible to have Islamic schools as well as Roman Catholic, Anglican
and Jewish schools within the state sector. On the other hand, the fact that nearly all schools are confessional
in nature means that many members of migrant and ethnic minority groups have little choice in practice when
they send their children to schools in their area. For those who do not belong to the dominant faith community
in the school this can be problematic. It seems likely that this will become an increasingly prominent issue in the
coming years. It is likely to be a difficult matter to address at political level; the primary legislation (Education
Act 1998) is quite recent.
Ireland has a centralised national curriculum, allowing guidelines and content to be disseminated nationally and
to be taken up within the individual school. Publications in recent years include:
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Intercultural education in the primary school: guidelines for schools (2004) National Council for Curriculum
and Assessment.
Guidelines on Traveller Education in Primary Schools (2002) Department of Education and Science.
Guidelines on Traveller Education in Second Level Schools (2002) Department of Education and Science.
Promoting anti-racism and interculturalism in education: draft recommendations towards a national action
plan (2003) Department of Education and Science.
INTO intercultural guidelines for schools (2002) The Irish National Teachers Organisation is the trade union
which represents primary school teachers.