The Garda Síochána should consider affirmative action to ensure representation of racial minorities in the force, the conference was told.
Mr Donncha O'Connell of NUI Galway said the the crucial work of the Garda Racial and Inter-cultural Unit needed to be supported, but it should be supplemented by programmes of affirmative action in relation to recruitment.
Speaking about tackling racially aggravated crime, he said that sentencing discretion on the part of the judiciary should be finessed to take adequate account of racial factors in crime. This could be done either by the legislature, or by the judges themselves through the Judicial Studies Institute and through the Court of Criminal Appeal laying down sentencing principles.
There also needs to be a more ambitious and imaginative use of the civil laws in this area, he said. Policing and prosecution practices require radical assessment with a view to heightening awareness of racism as a factor in criminal behaviour. It was also necessary to build confidence in policing and the criminal justice system within minority communities, so that the system could be tested by real victims of racially aggravated crimes, he said.
Less than 2 per cent of criminal incidents with a racist element result in prosecution for a racially aggravated offence in the UK, according to Ms Sheila Rogers of the Commission for Racial Equality. She cited three reasons for this. The majority of incidents go unreported to the police; many racist incidents go unrecognised by them; and, among those who reached the Crown Prosecution Service, either poor knowledge of the legislation led to some cases not being recognised, or they were plea-bargained away in return for guilty pleas to lesser charges.