DÁIL COMMITTEE: INTEGRATION OF immigrants will be one of the biggest challenges faced by Ireland in the years ahead, Bertie Ahern told the Select Committee on Finance and Public Services yesterday.
The Taoiseach said that 1 per cent of the working population was non-Irish 12 years ago and now the number was just short of 15 per cent. "It's a huge challenge to the system."
Referring to a school in Dublin West which he opened last year, where there were 35 nationalities and 14 religions, he said: "We are not experts on this. We have no expertise. As an island we were not very good at integrating with ourselves." A key test will be to integrate the second generation of immigrants, Mr Ahern said.
"We have to be very careful in this... it's not the generation who arrive where it breaks down, it's their children."