Dr Eamon Casey's work with Irish immigrants in Britain had a far-reaching influence on housing policy in both Britain and Ireland, a conference was told yesterday.
The former bishop of Galway, who resigned in 1992 after admitting he fathered a child, was involved in helping Irish immigrants buy their homes when he was appointed chaplain to St Ethelbert's parish in Slough, Berkshire, in 1960.
Speaking at the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants Conference to mark 50 years of the Irish chaplaincy in Britain, Dr Patricia Kennedy said Dr Casey's work led to the setting up of statutory services for the homeless in Britain and housing advice centres.
She outlined how Dr Casey encouraged Irish immigrants in Slough to save for the deposit on their homes through the parish savings scheme and he then set up an advisory scheme to help them in the process of buying their own homes.
Dr Kennedy, who is a lecturer in the School of Applied Science in UCD, said Dr Casey's work as the national director of Catholic Housing Aid brought him to the attention of the national media in Britain.
She said a BBC documentary made in the 1960s had an immediate impact on housing policy in Britain. Dr Casey was also the first chairman of Shelter, the housing charity, which was set up to put pressure on government and local housing authorities and is still in existence today.
She recalled at the time that Dr Casey was known as a "business tycoon with a Roman collar".
She said the chaplaincy had influenced social policy not only in housing, but in recruitment, prison welfare and the miscarriage of justice campaigns which led to the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland told the conference that Western countries that have adopted a laissez-faire attitude to immigrants have seen ethnic ghettos dominate their landscapes.
Mr Sutherland, who is now the special representative of the United Nations for migration and development, said the absence of immigrant-orientated policies was "not multiculturalism but neglect".
Mr Sutherland said there was a need for all public bodies in Ireland to "make our institutions look a lot more like the communities they serve".
