There is an absence of political leadership on the racism issue in Ireland, it was claimed at a weekend conference in Dublin.
The accusation came from the director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Mr Donncha O'Connell, who criticised the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, for his silence last week when 19 Moldovans were detained in Mountjoy after entering the State to work in a Co Kildare meat plant.
Mr O'Connell also criticised the silence of Minister of State Ms Liz O'Donnell on the issue. "What we look for from politicians is consistency. If Liz O'Donnell took the view that asylum policy was a shambles in November 1999 I find it hard to understand why she has nothing to say about immigration policy for which a similar adjective could be found," he said.
"It's precisely at a time like this that you need people who have demonstrated courage in the past to show their courage again by speaking out against what is an indefensible practice on the part of the Government."
Mr O'Connell, who was addressing a conference on the theme "Ireland: Pluralism or Prejudice?", also accused the Government of delaying its antiracism campaign.
He said the potential for racism was very worrying and, if left unchallenged, would increase with serious consequences.
Mr Philip Watt, director of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Inter culturalism (NCCRI), which devised the anti-racism campaign, said the Government had decided to implement the campaign "in a different way to what we proposed".
Mr Watt rejected criticism by some speakers that the NCCRI had too much of a "top-down approach", and had failed to condemn Government inaction on racism.
Dr Ronit Lentin, a lecturer on ethnic and racial studies at Trinity College Dublin, said the Government's contradictory messages on asylum and immigration, together with media responses, were "major causative factors in contemporary Irish racism".