A call has been made for a review of incitement to hatred legislation, which was described at a weekend conference as "totally ineffective". Concerns were also expressed about the way the next census, in 2001, will inquire about ethnicity.
Mr Martin Collins of Pavee Point told the Department of Foreign Affairs Human Rights conference in Dublin that a review was "absolutely essential".
"No organisation, Traveller or any other group that I'm aware of, has actually won a case under the Incitement to Hatred Act, which is totally ineffective."
On two occasions attempts had been made to bring a case under the legislation, he said. One was against a commentator, Miss Mary Ellen Synon, for comments she made in the Sunday In- dependent, but the DPP decided there wasn't a case to be answered.
One case that got to court involved the then Fine Gael councillor Mr Sean Flannery. "but that is the only case we're aware of that went as far as court," he said. The case was defeated in court.
Mr Collins was also concerned about the question of ethnicity in next year's census paper. "The Central Statistics Office, in partnership with Pavee Point and other groups, agreed on a formula of words. Then the Government decided not to include it. It was a series of ethnic groups and you tick the one you belong to.
"They took the list out but left the Travellers. But that is problematic. When all Travellers see their own group being identified, they will say `why are we being singled out?' and they will think it is sinister. It needs to be done so that one group won't feel picked on," said Mr Collins.
He said the last time around it was the enumerator who decided if someone was a Traveller. "If you live in a trailer you're a Traveller but if you live in a house, and I live in a house, you're not. The census said there are 10,000 Travellers but there are about 22,000 to 25,000."
Mr Niall Crowley, chief executive officer of the Equality Authority, said that racism was not a new phenomenon in Irish society. "The experience of Irish Travellers has been well documented - an experience of racism rooted in a denial of ethnicity."
Outlining the prejudice experienced by ethnic minorities in the North, Mr Patrick Yu, executive director of the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, cited sentencing policy in courts. He worked as an interpreter in a case where his client got a sentence two years longer than the son of a former Lord Mayor who appeared in a similar case, even though his client was in possession of a smaller amount of drugs. "The sentencing was a lot less because he was the Lord Mayor's son," Mr Yu claimed.
