THE GOVERNMENT must take affirmative action to ensure that the recession is not accompanied by “scapegoating” minority ethnic people, former Equality Authority chief executive Niall Crowley has said.
Cultural diversity must be “valued” and Travellers must be recognised as an “integral part of ethnic diversity”, he said in NUI Galway yesterday.
This should include incorporating Travellers in the official brief held by the Minister of State for Integration, and the creation of “equality jobs” similar to the “green jobs” much spoken about for creating a sustainable society.
Mr Crowley, who was one of a panel of speakers invited by NUI’s Law Society to mark equality and inclusion week, recalled that Travellers represented Ireland’s largest minority ethnic group at the start of the economic boom.
During those “boom years”, Ireland became more conscious of and more engaged with cultural diversity, he contended. “Survey after survey” showed people understood the benefits for society.
“Not only did it enhance our economic performance, it was also seen as enhancing our social well being as a society,” he said. “This understanding should not change in a context of economic recession.”
Mr Crowley resigned from the authority in December following a 43 per cent cut in its budget and the Government’s insistence on proceeding with decentralisation of the office to Co Tipperary.