New Survey Examines People’s Attitudes to Diversity in Ireland
An Ipsos survey of 3,008 people on attitudes has found that the majority of people in Ireland would be very comfortable living next door to people with different nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientation, disabilities, religious beliefs, or marital status.
The survey, commissioned by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) in March and April of this year, as part of a review of the Equality Acts, also found that:
- Over 8 in 10 people are very comfortable living next door to people with different nationalities, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientation, disabilities, religious beliefs (and none) or marital status
- 76% of people think the government should help asylum seekers (International Protection applicants)
- 87% feel Ireland should help people fleeing the war in Ukraine
- 72% feel immigrants contribute a lot to Ireland.
Three out of four are positive about immigration from outside the EU and Ukraine, increasing to seven out of eight people for immigration from Europe or the Ukraine.
However, only 53% of people say they would be very comfortable living next to someone who is a Traveller or Roma.
The survey was designed by Ipsos in conjunction with several Government departments and representatives from different civil society groups. These include Pavee Point, NDA, AsIAm, Independent Living Movement, the Irish Deaf Society, National Platform of Self Advocates, Voice of Vision, Physical Impairment Ireland, Disabled Women Ireland, BelongTo, INAR, MRCI and the ESRI. In addition, several civil society groups and independent experts provided feedback on question formulation.
The survey was conducted using both in person and telephone data collection techniques and is considered a robust nationally representative sample of the Irish population.