Praises Lord Mayor in his efforts to help build an inclusive Dublin City on first formal visit to TRUST

The Lord Mayor of Dublin Vincent Jackson paid his first formal visit to TRUST today (Tuesday, October 10, 2006) and in welcoming him ALICE LEAHY, Director and Co-Founder congratulated him on his efforts in helping to make Dublin into an inclusive city and called for a national forum to be urgently established by the government to assess how Ireland as a whole can more successfully facilitate the integration of workers, especially form the EU accession states.

“Many people from the EU accession states have come to Ireland and found jobs and are making a welcome contribution to our economy. However, quite a number have also got into difficulties and even become homeless putting pressure on services that are inadequately geared to cope. This need not happen and we can do a great deal to prevent unnecessary suffering if all of the relevant services as well as the ambassadors from the relevant States get together and work out a plan with the vital and urgent support of the government”, ALICE LEAHY said.

Describing this as a national problem ALICE LEAHY said that the proposed National Forum could act as the starting point in bringing together all of the relevant people and organisations to immediately propose and oversee the implementation of practical measures to help people.

“In many instances if people arrived better informed about conditions here with appropriate and often basic support they could avoid ending up on the street even temporarily. But we have to recognise that we need to take action in Ireland but also mobilise people in the accession States as well to ensure that their citizens are equipped to make a successful start in Ireland. This is also about protecting peoples’ rights and giving them the means to ensure they avoid what are often wholly preventable and painful problems when they arise,” ALICE LEAHY said.