A cross-party group of British MPs will meet for the first time in October to consider the specific needs of the Irish in Britain on health, education and housing, the Labour MP, Mr John McDonnell, announced in London yesterday.
The group of at least 50 MPs will form a standing committee, but will not have legislative powers. The announcement came at a press conference to launch a report on the health of the Irish community in Britain by the Federation of Irish Societies, an umbrella organisation for Irish community and welfare groups. Mr McDonnell said there was an urgent need for the British government to recognise the Irish community in Britain as a separate ethnic minority in the next census in 2001 so that the promotion and implementation of social policies could be better targeted.
Highlighting the historic gap in recognising the particular problems faced by the Irish in terms of housing, health and racism, Mr McDonnell said he believed the government was on the verge of making a "fairly momentous" decision later this year to recognise the Irish as a separate category in the census.
Launching the report, Ms Mary Tilki, a lecturer in the School of Health, Biological and Environmental Sciences at Middlesex University, said the first step in tackling the relative ill-health of the Irish compared to the indigenous population was recognising the Irish as a specific cultural group. Cultural awareness among health care providers of the differences between British and Irish people was needed, as well as a more creative approach to the provision of services for the Irish community.
The Health of the Irish in Britain - a report commissioned in 1996 by the FIS and the King's Fund SHARE project - found that the mortality rate of the Irish in Britain had increased significantly since the 1970s. In the early 1970s the mortality rate of Irish men between 25 and 64 was 21 per cent higher compared to men in England and Wales. Among Irish women the rate was 16 per cent higher.
By the 1990s the rise in the mortality rate of Irish men widened the gap between them and Irish women in England and Wales. Between 1991 and 1993 the mortality rate of Irish men was about 30 per cent higher compared to men in England and Wales; the rate for Irish women had fallen to about 10 per cent higher compared to women in England and Wales. The main cause of death, apart from accidents, was lung cancer, followed by suicide and heart disease.
The "invisibility" of the Irish in Britain also posed a problem in the research of health and social care. Mr Pat Bracken, a consultant psychiatrist, argued that for Irish people the possibility of "disappearing" into British society was relatively easy because of skin colour and the ability to change one's accent. Mr Bracken warned against the Irish being seen as competing with other ethnic groups, especially when second generation Irish began to assert themselves within the community. Irish community groups should connect with other ethnic groups in the struggle for recognition rather than immediately turning to psychiatric care.
The report also challenges the stereotypes surrounding the mental health of the Irish in Britain. While it accepts that there is a high rate of admissions to mental hospitals, it suggests that this may be linked to problems such as housing rather than an "inherent predisposition to madness".
The figures for the suicide rate among the 20-49 age group in men make sobering reading. The latest figures for the suicide rate in that age group is 50 per cent higher than the white population in Britain and 65 per cent higher for Irish women. The report says the average Irish male life expectancy shortens by five years on arrival in Britain.