The Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, said the Government is reviewing legislation regarding racism and incitement to hatred. He said people who incite racial hatred will have "no place to hide in Irish law".
Mr Ahern was speaking at the opening of the Government's three-year anti-racism programme. He said the recent increase in racial tension in Ireland has set long term challenges which should be dealt with in ‘a novel way.’
The Taoiseach told delegates the vision of this new initiative would be to get people to reject racism and discrimination.
Outlining anti-racism measures taken to date, Mr Ahern said the Government had made discrimination illegal, a Human Rights Commission had been established and that the Government was "working hard to make progress with realistic migration policies and improved asylum procedures."
He said this did not mean adopting an ‘open-door immigration’ policy.
Mr Ahern said he was pleased to be able to report that progress was being made to implement a six-month processing time for asylum-applications.
The number of asylum applications in the State has risen dramatically in recent years, from a level of just over 400 in 1995 to over 7,700 last year. The number of applications currently on hand is in the region of 12,000, with over 5,000 new applications received so far this year.