Last Wednesday in Dublin, Pavee Point attended a consultation day concerning An Garda Síochána’s upcoming Diversity & Integration Strategy 2026-2029.
The new strategy follows from the Diversity and Integration Strategy 2019-2021 and is based around five main pillars: Safety, Trust and Public Confidence; Structured Community Engagement; Equality and Human Rights Alignment; Garda Training; Increased Hate Crime Reporting.
Damaris Paun, of Pavee Point’s Roma Programme, and Pa Reilly, Coordinator of Pavee Point’s Mental Health Initiative, contributed to discussions by advocating for the inclusion of the disaggregated data on the basis of ethnicity (ethnic identifier) in the new strategy, advocating for anti-racism training in An Garda Síochána (AGS), and advocating for increased ethnic diversity amongst membership in the force.
The Diversity & Integration Strategy is being developed alongside the AGS Strategic Plan 2026-2028, which can be read here: https://www.garda.ie/en/about-us/publications/policing-plans/strategy/an_garda_siochana___strategic_plan_2026_2028.pdf