More public services for immigrants urged

Health and education experts yesterday urged the Government to take greater steps to ensure public services meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population.

Prof Muiris X Fitzgerald, dean of medicine at University College Dublin, said that at a time of unprecedented demographic changes, the Government had an opportunity to take a strong leadership stance on the issue.

He said the Government could take steps such as appointing a minister to take overall responsibility for the area and promote greater co-ordination and consensus on how health and education services seek to meet the needs of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Prof Fitzgerald was speaking at the launch of a report which surveyed how Government departments and public sector organisations are providing intercultural training and development.

The report, The New Irish Communities - A Project to Promote Effective Professional Education for Pluralism and Intercultural Development, found most organisations surveyed provided professional training which included an intercultural component.

Fifty-seven of the 69 organisations which responded said they provided professional development training, and 60 per cent of these provided an intercultural development component.

Project co-ordinator Mary Brew said the survey was not judging the performance of public services, but instead sought to provide an indication of the levels of training in the area.

The secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach, Dermot McCarthy, welcomed the research and said it provided a valuable chance to reflect on how public services were meeting the needs of an increasingly diverse community.

Just 69 of the 169 departments or organisations approached responded, a rate of 42 per cent.