Madam, – I have been asked by the Minister for Integration, Mr. John Curran,TD, to respond to certain comments in the article “Racial tension at the taxi rank” (Features, February 24th).
The Minister welcomes publication of the article as he believes racist attitudes can only be counteracted by informed public debate on the issue.
It is unfortunate, however, that certain comments in the article might convey a wrong impression.
It is true that 10 per cent of racist incidents reported to the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) in 2008 related to taxi issues. A total of 106 complaints were made to NCCRI in 2008 (32 of which related to a particular newspaper article) – 10 or 11 to taxi services.
While one complaint is one too many, the Minister is of the view that it is misleading to suggest, based on the NCCRI figures, that racism is growing among taxi drivers.
The view is also put forward that racism classically manifests itself at times of recession, that the warning flags are being raised and, if nothing is done, there will soon be trouble. However, the website of this office shows what is being done to promote integration (www.integration.ie). The number of crimes with racial overtones committed in recent years are 2006: 173, 2007: 214, 2008: 172, 2009: 126. – Yours, etc,