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

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Chapter 4: Ireland Research Findings 122_123
Awareness of legislation, policy, agencies
The Department of Education has a detailed awareness of all relevant legislation and policy but at the schools
level the legislation they are most conscious of is the Equal Status Act 2000 which has been published in
brochures and distributed to all schools. The view was expressed that primary school principals, since the
Education Act 1998, are acutely aware of legislation and were familiar with all the listed legislation and policy
instruments except the ‘Race’ directive. By contrast, those at post leaving-certificate level were not aware of the
Equal Status Act 2000 or the EU ‘Race’ directive.
Those at the Department are also very familiar with the new official agencies and said the Department was one
of the first to produce a “Promoting Anti-Racism” document as a contribution to NPAR. At the primary school
level not all are aware of the NPAR or the Equality Authority, but they are generally better informed about the
Equality Tribunal and the NCCRI and its work. In the PLC sector there appears to be a less developed level of
awareness.
School policies
The mission statement of one typical school is to welcome children from all ethnic backgrounds. There is no
individual or unit responsible for racial equality as ‘there is total integration within the school’. The corporate/
strategic plan of the school does not specifically include the needs of members of staff from immigrant and
minority ethnic groups (there are none at present).
Most schools at both primary and second levels do not have specific policies or practices for recording
and dealing with complaints about racist incidents. At the PLC visited there is no racial equality policy or
intercultural relations policy and there are no teaching staff from minority ethnic groups; interviewees did not
know if the corporate/strategic plan of the organisation specifically included the needs of members of staff from
minority ethnic groups. While there is no mechanism to deal with specifically racist incidents, such complaints
could be dealt with under existing policies on bullying and harassment.
Employment
Employment is one area where it may be said that mainstreaming strategies have been developed and
implemented:
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The Department of Trade, Enterprise and Employment provides information on employment rights in
Chinese, Czech, English, Hungarian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Russian.
FÁS, Ireland’s State training and employment agency, launched a comprehensive ‘Know before you go’
information resource in 2005, aimed in particular at would-be migrants to Ireland. The material is available in
Czech, German, Estonian, Greek Cypriot, French, Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Slovakian
and Slovenian.
Key legislation does not distinguish in any way between Irish and migrant workers; rights and entitlements in
employment are unrelated to country of origin.
The Employment Equality Act 1998 as amended by the Equality Act 2004; as well as the work of the
Equality Authority, Equality Tribunal and NCCRI have provided effective ways of ensuring the mainstreaming
of anti-racism in the workplace.