New initiative to help refugees and those who have come to Ireland looking for protection.
The Lord Mayor Joe Doyle has launched an initiative to help asylum seekers and refugees settle into life in Dublin. Joe Doyle says it is his role as Lord Mayor to welcome everyone who lives in the city.
Dublin Corporation and Health Board staff will undergo special training in dealing with people from different cultures. The initiative includes the publication of information booklets in nine languages including Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croat, Vietnamese, Portuguese, French and Arabic.
Mary Van Lieshout, from the Eastern Health Board, says that the information booklet will make a tremendous difference.
Step by step procedures from when a person arrives from the airport and takes them through the services around health, social welfare and housing.
John Fitzgerald, Dublin City Manager, says that the objective of the initiative is,
To promote a greater degree of tolerance, especially in a nation that has exported so many of its people in the past.
The reality is that most asylum seekers have their applications turned down. This year, decisions on 426 cases have been made and just 49 have qualified for refugee status.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 22 March 1999. The reporter is Margaret Ward.
