Democracy `is being subverted by State funds for anti-racism'

The Immigration Control Platform has complained that democracy is being "subverted" by the spending of Government funds on anti-racism activities.

The ICP claims that the Government's aid programme, Ireland Aid, has "deviated alarmingly" from its brief by allowing funds to be spent on the promotion of anti-racism.

It says very few Irish people realise that Irish aid funds go to promote policies at home "to which many of them would be deeply opposed".

The comments are made in a submission by the ICP to the current review of Ireland Aid.

The submission singles out for criticism funding for Comhlamh, the association of returned development workers, which receives financial assistance from the National Committee for Development Education (NCDE) and the Agency for Personal Services Overseas (APSO).

It accuses Comhlamh of taking an "extremely radical" view of the "deeply divisive issue" of asylum/refugees/immigration. The result is that the NCDE is funding one side of a "highly divisive" domestic political issue.

"The positions taken are extremely critical of Government policy, e.g. critical of deportations; critical of immigration control procedures; derogatory of the legitimately carried out functions of public servants; contemptuous of the legitimate distinction between asylum-seekers and refugees and the distinction between either of these and economic migrants," according to ICP secretary Mr Tom Hanley.

Comhlamh has rejected these criticisms.

Its co-ordinator, Mr Colm O Cuanachain, said yesterday that "linking the local and the global" was a cornerstone of development education. Comhlamh, which has 1,000 members throughout the State, had an obligation to promote an understanding of people from countries where civil liberties were at risk.

"Issues like refugees and racism, which bring global problems to our doorstep, have to be part of our agenda.

"Otherwise, a lot of problems become meaningless; they're always `out there'," he said.

The ICP says it is a legitimate function of Government to promote social harmony but the brief for these matters lies with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. Ireland Aid is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

It also claims that the "subversion of democracy" is compounded by overlapping membership between many anti-racist groups, leading to multiple funding for particular aims.

APSO needs to find a way to support returned development workers while ring-fencing funds against use for a domestic political agenda, according to the submission.

Comhlamh receives about £70,000 a year each from APSO and NCDE.