RTÉ Prime Time asks "How Racist is Ireland?" following only two incidents of racist abuse involving clearly drunken Irishmen, one recently on Irish Rail on Sunday where a drunkard verbally abused an Indian family, and another from back in Easter where another drunkard physically and verbally abused an African taxi man.
Incididents such as these are being used by the likes of the Immigrant Council of Ireland to promote the need for Hate Crime Legislation.
This all comes off the back of a recent ECRI (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance) report from the 4th of June which calls on the Irish government to come up with a new strategy to tackle racism and prejudice.
The report calls for a new strategy against racism in order to reduce what it calls prejudice against Travellers, Roma, migrants and Muslims.
The 37-page report concludes that the majority of local authorities have consistently failed to provide adequate and culturally appropriate accommodation for Travellers.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, one of the report's authors, Volodymyr Kulyk, said Travellers are treated worse than refugees in Ireland.
Mr Kulyk said the Government should either pressure local authorities to provide adequate Traveller accommodation and punish the authorities that fail to deliver, or remove the responsibility from a local level and move it to a central level.
He called on the Government to focus on combating prejudice and fostering tolerance.
In addition, he said, there should be a new national plan against racism because, despite the best of intentions, the last one has not been successful.
He added that asylum seekers are spending too long in direct provision and are unable to lead normal lives.
It says migrants face "discrimination", as well as high rents and a severe housing shortage.
The report also criticises the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act as particularly ineffectual in "combating online hate speech".
There are no provisions in Irish l..
