Sir, - It is commendable that the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has just announced an allocation of £1 million for an anti-racism initiative, but there were a number of cheaper options available to him.
He could, for example, have publicly rejected the inflammatory remarks made by the chairperson of the Eastern Health Board, Ivor Callely TD, last November, about the need for a get-tough policy on asylum-seekers.
The Minister could also, with a little self-restraint, hold off on some of his own more emphatic outbursts - drawing, no doubt, from the well of Zero Tolerance philosophy - on the differences between "genuine asylum-seekers" and "economic immigrants". He could, occasionally, acknowledge the variety of often tragic "push-factors" which force people to seek asylum in this country instead of always bemoaning the debatable "pull-factors" of Ireland of the Dubious Welcomes.
It wouldn't be so destructive of the moral fabric of this increasingly diverse society if the Minister and his officials displayed a greater degree of warmth and a little less hostility towards refugees and asylum-seekers and towards those who work with them. A good model can be found in the very significant speech on the subject by President McAleese before Christmas.
Put simply, there is little point in the State funding anti-racism programmes when the State itself contributes, by act and omission, to the problem of racism. A little more "anti-racism" of the cost-free variety from the State and its agents would go a long way. - Yours, etc.,
Donncha O'Connell, Director, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Lower Dominick Street, Dublin 1.