Ministers in the Stormont Executive are united in their efforts to do all they can to tackle a rise in race hate crime in Northern Ireland, First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said.
Justice Minister Naomi Long added that it had been a “difficult summer” with rising tensions after a number of racist attacks.
The ministers were speaking as the Executive agreed its draft programme for government. One of the nine priorities in the plan is to provide safer communities.
It comes during a time of increased concern over race-related incidents in Northern Ireland.
Recent figures showed that the region reported the highest number of race-related incidents on record last year.
Ministers in the four-party Executive have reached agreement on a programme for government (David Young/PA)
Some 1,411 such incidents were recorded in the 12 months from July 1 2023 to June 30 2024, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).
The latest figures were recorded before the recent spate of race-related incidents in August which followed anti-immigration protests in Belfast.
Unrest in Belfast and attacks on some businesses owned by people from minority ethnic backgrounds came at a time of tension in some parts of the UK after misinformation on social media after the murder of three young children in Southport.
Ms O’Neill said the Executive would do all that it could to tackle racist incidents.
She said: “I think the Executive collectively has demonstrated over the harrowing events over the summer months that we stand united in saying no to racism, we stand united in saying no to hate and that we stand united in calling out those people that are responsible for the activities we have seen.
“Day after day we are seeing reports of people being terrorised in their own community, people being terrorised to walk their children to school.”
She added: “That is not acceptable to anybody around the Executive table and we are all collectively committed to doing all that we can, including engaging with those people that are impacted, engaging with the black and ethnic minority community, engaging with people to ensure that they know we are their government, we are here for them and they are a valued part of our community.
“One of our focuses is around safer communities.”
Ms Long said there had to be a strong policing and justice response to hate crime.
She said: “The fact that one of our nine priorities is about safer communities reflects our concerns about the harm that has been done by what has been a very difficult summer.
“There is a lot of fear, a lot of tension in our community.
“Whilst as Justice Minister I have a particular interest in terms of the justice elements of that, we recognise as a four-party Executive that this is a much wider issue.
“It is about education and community support, it is about good relations, about race relations.”
She added: “I think there are many things that we can do to provide that reassurance and I think key to that is ensuring we have a strong policing and justice response.
“Which is why the inclusion of safer communities is one of those nine priorities.”