AN EXTRAORDINARY re-buttal of a pamphlet from a leading migrant rights’ organisation was issued by Integration Minister John Curran last week.
Responding to Hidden Messages: Overt Agendas, a pamphlet written by ex-Equality Authority chief Niall Crowley and published by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), Minister Curran said he “cannot afford a welcome” to the publication due to “such omissions as to render the pamphlet seriously flawed”.
The MRCI pamphlet, wrote the junior minister, makes “no reference” to integration-targeted grants dispatched to national groups by the Office of the Minister for Integration, and fails to mention the fact that the office was not abolished on foot of a McCarthy Report recommendation.
“The pamphlet quotes, correctly, the McCarthy report as recommending that the Office of the Minister for Integration should be abolished and that language support teachers in schools should be reduced from 2200 to 500, ” wrote Minister Curran.
However, he points out that the Government did not abolish the office and the reduction in language support teachers “was to about 1,500 at a cost, incidentally, of about €100m”, facts which are not referenced in the pamphlet.
The minister’s statement also refers to “incomplete figures” on racism.
“There is no place for racism but a full picture, good or bad, should be given,” he wrote.
Responding to Minister Curran’s criticisms, pamphlet author Niall Crowley told Metro Éireann: “What’s startling about it is that it serves to distract rather than illuminate. It doesn’t address the key issues, like the nature of political leadership and quality of political leadership on migrant issues.”
Crowley, who resigned as Equality Authority chief in December 2008 after a savage 43 per cent cut to its budget, said the paper highlights the “contrast” between what politicians say and do on migrant issues, and that there is “nothing selective” in doing so.
He noted Finance Minister Brian Lenihan’s warning that €3bn in Government spending cuts and tax increases are earmarked for 2011, and said Minister Curran’s statement makes no guarantees concerning the Office of the Minister of Integration’s continued existence.
The pamphlet noted that while politicians make “carefully positive” statements on the “valuable presence and contribution” of immigrants, they communicate “another set of more hidden messages” in policy proposals, and it contrasted positive political statements on immigrants with unfriendly procedures such as long waiting times for citizenship.
An MRCI spokesperson told Metro Éireann that Minister Curran’s statement “avoided the main issues highlighted”, and that the organisation has requested a meeting to allow for “constructive debate”.
