Irish attitude to foreigners criticised

THE "ugly" racism which manifested itself during the general election reflected the need for a strong debate on where Irish people's values now lay, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, has said.

Speaking at the publication of the 1997 Human Development Report yesterday in Dublin City University, the Minister of State condemned the way in which the arrival of a couple of thousand foreign nationals had been used during the campaign.

There was no reason to cast aside the memory of how Irish people had to leave these shores to seek work elsewhere; nor should we forget the sense of solidarity that Ireland shared with the developing world, she said.

For those so concerned that Irish society might somehow be undermined" by the arrivals, she would say that it was time that Ireland took its place among the industrial countries offering people the right to live without having to flee from war and poverty.

Ms Burton said that the Human Development Report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), offered a message of hope.

Instead of "shrugging collective shoulders" about the plight of developing countries, the developed world should now be tackling the issue. The international community had a duty to address the fundamental questions of development - the basics such as health, housing and education, she said.

Quoting the poet, William Blake, Ms Burton noted that about 950 million of the world's 1.3 billion poor lived in Asia. The much mentioned "Asian tiger" might burn brightly in terms of the global economy, but it did not necessarily benefit its people, she said.

Similarly, though Ireland had joined the ranks of the well off, not everyone shared in this good fortune. The UN report says that Ireland has more children living below the poverty line than in other industrialised countries, at 13.8 per cent. Also, some 16 per cent of Irish secondary school age children are not enrolled in school.

Also speaking at the report's publication, Mr Hugh Frazer, director of the Combat Poverty Agency, called on the incoming government to make poverty a key priority in its programme. The UN report clearly demonstrated that in spite of the current economic boom, there was no reason to be complacent.

"The report's recognition that tackling poverty involves much more than just improving income, but must also address the denial of opportunities and choices, is one that we would share," he said.

Mr Sean Finn, UNDP representative in Ireland, said that he was of the generation that maintained that "the poor would always be with us". This report proved that "it ain't necessarily so", he said.

The report proposed an affordable strategy which could eradicate world poverty with just one 1 per cent of global income. "So we represent the first generation in the history of mankind to have this opportunity," Mr Finn said. "Let us not be remembered as the generation that let this opportunity go."