Black and minority ethnic groups need to be actively recruited within the public service, the Equality Authority says in a submission to Government on measures to promote an inter-cultural society and to combat racism.
Diversity within minority ethnic communities must also be taken account of, with future policy catering for the specific needs of gays, lesbians, men and women, people with disabilities, carers and older and younger people, the document says.
The authority's submission to the forthcoming National Action Plan Against Racism has been forwarded to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, which is drafting the document, due to be published next year.
The plan arises out of commitments made by Ireland and some 170 other nations at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in South Africa in September 2001.
The authority's chief executive, Mr Niall Crowley, said the plan was aimed at combating racism, but must also work towards building an inter-cultural society by promoting cultural diversity.
A holistic strategy was needed which fitted the established policy framework for equality issues, based on the four "rs" of redistribution, representation, recognition and respect, he said.
The authority's submission calls for a review of the system of "direct provision" payments to asylum-seekers to enable self-reliance and measures to ensure that information on employee protection rights is directly available to all migrant workers.
It also wants to extend the right to work to asylum-seekers within six months if their application for refugee process has not been processed.
It wants the "active recruitment" of staff from black and minority ethnic groups within the public service, and action to address the needs of women from these groups being recruited as domestics.
On education, the submission calls for school plans to include an "explicit anti-racist and inter-cultural dimension", and codes of behaviour for pupils.
It also wants a review of recent anti-trespass legislation which has been used to target Travellers living on roadsides awaiting local authority accommodation, and supports for minority ethnic communities to combat discrimination by landlords in the rental sector.
Mr Crowley said any future anti-racism action plan must be more than a list of planned actions.
"It should establish clear goals about what we mean by an inter-cultural society and put in place targeted measures, with goals and time periods."