Press release
New survey examines people’s attitudes to diversity in Ireland
From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
Published on
Last updated on
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:
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.
Commenting on the survey results, Minister Roderic O’Gorman said:
“The survey provides us with a scientifically robust source of evidence on the current attitudes towards equality and diversity in Ireland. It is encouraging to see that the majority of Irish people welcome those seeking safety from conflict and adversity. While the report shows that more work is required by Government and the whole of the society on matters of diversity, it also reflects the welcoming attitude of Irish people towards new communities. This survey will inform the development of new equality strategies and action plans.”
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.
Read the full survey report here
The department carried out this survey to assist in understanding people’s attitudes towards the equality goals, as part of its review of the Equality Acts (the Equal Status Acts and Employment Equality Act have been in place for over two decades). In addition, under the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, the department is required to assess and report on progress on equality goals.
The department contracted Ipsos to run a survey of attitudes across the equality grounds, covering all of the existing equality grounds in Irish legislation. All interviews were conducted between 7 March and 12 April 2023.
The overall nationally representative sample size was 3,008 interviews, providing a robust base for analysis of the poll findings. Two different methods were used to conduct the surveys. Of the 3,008 total interviews, 1,508 of the interviews were conducted by Telephone Interviewing and 1,500 by Personal Interviewing where the interview took place face-to-face in the respondent’s home.
All 1,500 CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) respondents were identified using stratified random sampling. IPSOS interviewers were sent to 100 locations across Ireland and instructed to take a random route from a random start address to identify respondents for interview. Interviewers were further required to fill quotas by age, gender and socio-economic status, to limit bias in respondent selection at the household level.