A new report on a three-year integration plan for Limerick city and county has found that much progress has been made, but a “great deal of work” remains.
The report on the implementation of Integrating Limerick, the Limerick City and County Integration Plan 2010-2012, was launched on Thursday 21 March with an event hosted by Limerick City and County Integration Working Group (IWG) joint chairs Eugene Quinn and Karen McHugh.
Quinn said of the progress report in the third and final year of the integration plan: “We have achieved a great deal in regard to our original aims. However, we are also aware that there is still a great deal of work that could be done in the area of integration.”
Addressing guests at the event, keynote speaker Sgt Dave McInerney of the Garda Racial and Intercultural Unit underlined the importance of reporting racist incidents to the Garda as part of a wider effort to eliminate racism as a barrier to integration.
This sentiment was echoed by Limerick Garda Sgt Ollie Kennedy, who gave the local perspective.
“Everyone has the right to live in a safe and equal society,” he said. “Nobody should be entitled to go around and inflict misery or pain on anyone else no matter who or where they are.
“We appeal to everyone to report anything that they perceive to be a racist incident," he added.
Participants also heard from Limerick City Council Mayor Gerry McLoughlin and Cllr Mary Jackman, deputising on behalf of the Leas-Cathaoirleach, on the importance of integration as a positive contribution to the economic, social and cultural fabric of Limerick city and county.
As part of the programme, participants discussed if Limerick is an ‘integrated city’, and there was also a panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of integration in Limerick, with contributions by local entrepreneur Daudi Kutta, University of Limerick community liaison officer Gabriella Hanrahan and Tess Conway of the Limerick Filipino community.
The panel highlighted key areas that will contribute to the next integration plan for the region, including education, entrepreneurship and community engagement.
Conway gave a personal insight to some of the barriers faced by many migrant communities in trying to integrate into Irish society, while Kutta spoke about the positive contribution that migrants make to society through entrepreneurship. “Immigrants are a rapidly growing group within the Irish economy and immigrant entrepreneurs are making an increasingly significant contribution. We must embrace change to make change,” he said.
Hanrahan, who linked the experience of integration with the theme of lifelong learning, told the gathering that multiculuralism enriches Irish society.
“It is a privilege that we can sit down with someone from a different culture and background and share our knowledge and experience with each other,” she said. “At the end of the day that is what human beings have in common: a desire to learn and grow.”
The event coincided with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, as well as Limerick’s Lifelong Learning Week.
