Problems with rural integration - report

Not enough is being done to integrate foreign nationals into rural communities, according to a new report published today.

The report, Reaching Out, which has been compiled by Irish Rural Link, finds that prejudice about race and identity is a huge problem for people from abroad living in Ireland.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0303/integration.html

Report.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0303/ruralireland.pdf

Immigrants urged to participate in politics

A campaign is being launched today which it is claimed could see tens of thousands of members of ethnic communities register to vote in next year's local elections.

The campaign, organised by the Africa Centre and New Community Partnership, is part of a wider campaign which includes voter education, and also a call to engage and participate in the 2009 local elections, be it as a voter or a candidate.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/1103/voting.html

Teachers back call to segregate immigrants

TEACHERS last night gave a guarded backing to calls for immigrant children who cannot speak English properly to be "segregated" in our classrooms.

This followed a Fine Gael call yesterday for the Government to separate immigrant children with poor language skills from the rest of their classmates.

The party’s education spokesman, Brian Hayes, said children should not be put into a mainstream class until they have a competence for it.

He added: “And if that requires segregation, well then we have got to segregate the child in the best interests of that child.”

He said he was also aware that many parents were frustrated at the effect the lack of segregation was having on the education of their Englishspeaking children.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/teachers-back-call-to-segregate-immigrants-1458490.html

Surge in non-nationals buying first home here

ALMOST one in 20 first-time buyer houses are being snapped up by Africans, according to figures to be published later this month.

The figures, from the Irish Mortgage Corporation, show that while many Irish-born first-time buyers have been sitting on the property fence this year, the number of properties being bought by non-nationals has surged.

Overall, non-nationals are snapping up one in four first-time buyer houses, compared to about one in 10 three years ago.

Asian first-time buyers have the biggest taste for Irish property. About one in 14 first-time buyer houses are snapped up by Asians, with most of these coming from India, the Philippines, Pakistan and China.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/surge-in-nonnationals-buying-first-home-here-1457456.html

Non-Irish nationals living in Ireland - 2006 Census

People from 188 different countries were living in the State at the time of the last census in 2006, new figures show.

Of the 420,000 non-Irish people residing here on census day in April 2006, the largest group was UK nationals, who numbered 112,000. Poles were the second-largest group, followed by Lithuanians, Nigerians and Latvians.

The top ten countries accounted for 82 per cent of the total non-Irish population, and there were 44 countries – from Anguilla to Western Sahara – represented by fewer than 10 people.

The report of the non-Irish population, released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), also shows that people from countries outside Europe had higher overall educational attainment than Irish people in the same age brackets.

In general, foreign nationals were concentrated either in cities, particularly Dublin and Galway, or in the popular tourist destinations on the western and southern seaboards. Leitrim, Longford, Waterford city and county, Carlow and North Tipperary all had fewer than 5,000 foreigners, while Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Cork County all had more than 20,000.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0630/breaking43.htm

Full CSO Report
http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/population/non-irish/nonirishnationalscomplete.pdf

State benefits to non-resident children soar by 2,000%

FOREIGN-based families of non-nationals living here will get a massive €15m in child benefit payments from the State this year.

The cost of child benefit payments for non-resident children to Irish taxpayers has increased by more than 2,000 per cent in the past four years.

The payments have been bolstered by the introduction of the new Early Child Supplement, which was introduced in 2006 and pays €1,100 for each child under the age of six to assist with childcare costs.

Under EU law, Ireland's Child Benefit payment, formerly known as Children's Allowance, is paid to 3,800 families in respect of 6,840 children living outside the country.

As a growing number of European nationals come to Ireland, the numbers of non-national workers claiming the benefits in Ireland has increased more than twelve-fold in the past four years.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/state-benefits-to-nonresident-children-soar-by-2000pc-1393775.html

Tommy Broughan TD asks Minister about job displacement

Job Protection.

278. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if she will investigate reports that Irish workers are being forced to take redundancy in the construction sector when workers from outside of the Republic of Ireland are still being employed by the contractors and subcontractors involved; if she will review whether the State’s redundancy scheme is being used to fund the replacement of direct employees by agency or subcontracted staff in the construction sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17350/08]

279. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if her attention has been drawn to what is allegedly happening in a company (details supplied), where Irish workers are allegedly being forced to take redundancy and are being replaced by non-Irish nationals; if she will check all P35s and pension schemes of all agency and non-agency workers employed by the company and all of their subcontractors; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17351/08]

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20080508.XML&Node=2759&Page=32