Galway meeting is told of racist attitudes

Racism is very evident in the west of Ireland and is getting worse, according to several representatives of statutory agencies.

Such racism appears to be embedded in the educational system, with schools which try to cater for minority groups being penalised for the effort, Mr Joseph Langan, chief executive officer of Mayo Vocational Education Committee, said.

Mr Langan was speaking at a discussion in Galway yesterday hosted by the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Inter-culturalism under the aegis of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform.

In some cases, parents had withdrawn children from schools where pupils included members of the Travelling community, Mr Langan said. He had also heard of cases where teachers segregated Travelling children into separate classes, or placed them at the back of classes with colouring books and pencils.

He had heard of full staff discussions in State-funded schools, where a vote was called on whether Travelling children should be admitted.

Mr Langan said that in his view, the arrival of 20 to 30 non-Irish families in any Irish town could cause "huge" problems, given the experience over the past 20 years in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo. The small Asian community which settled there to work at the Halal meat processing plant - since taken over by Dawn Meats - had encountered serious difficulties, mainly due to language barriers, he said.

Currently there was "ring-fencing" at every level of society, as people created their own ghettos, and education was needed to change attitudes, he said. Mr Tony Barrett, regional director of FAS, said Irish people were not only becoming more racist towards non-nationals but were demonstrating such attitudes towards their own. FAS was required to take on additional responsibilities in training, without adequate resources, he said. FAS was often seen as the "basket of last resort" for everyone else's difficulties.

Asylum-seekers sent to the west of Ireland in recent months were very distrustful of people in authority, largely due to bad experiences in their country of origin, Garda Insp. P. J. Durkan said. While there had been no major problems to date, he could see difficulties in the future if trust was not built up. It made common sense for the gardai to reach out to people through community policing, and various initiatives were also taking place through outreach programmes and panels established under the authority of the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne.

Galway's city manager, Mr Joe Gavin, said prejudice and discrimination affected more than just ethnic minorities. Whenever the local authority tried to purchase land for housing, locals often mounted opposition, he said. The same sort of response was encountered when the local authority tried to buy houses in new private estates. In one instance, 70 per cent of deposits lodged by Galway Corporation were returned when the developer learned the houses were being bought by the local authority.

The new Planning Bill aimed to overcome some of these difficulties, he said, but prejudice also existed in relation to providing accommodation for Travellers. Galway Corporation had found itself in the High Court on many occasions for this reason.