Madam, - I write on behalf of the diversity committee of the Children's University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin to say how saddened we were by the Budget decision to dissolve the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI).
The NCCRI has been a great support to this hospital in our work on developing best practice in the area of cultural diversity in healthcare. Specifically, some of our staff have been fortunate to participate in the high quality training which the NCCRI has provided.
Also, the NCCRI has been a locus of expertise for us in our ongoing work in this highly complex area and we have valued this expertise and the generosity of the staff in NCCRI in sharing it.
Given our very positive experience of the NCCRI's work we were disappointed to read the article by Sarah Carey in which she describes the organisation as "not worth defending". Whilst we can only agree with Ms Carey's opinion that a grassroots approach to inclusiveness is effective, we would suggest that, from our experience, it is precisely this approach that the work of the NCCRI has always endeavoured to support.
We would like to thank the staff of the NCCRI for their contribution to our work in the hospital. We know this contribution will be missed not only by ourselves but by all the groups engaged in progressing an intercultural, anti-racist agenda in this country. - Yours, etc,
MONA BAKER,
HR Manager and Diversity Committee Member,
Childrens University Hospital,
Temple Street,
Dublin 1.