European Survey Data on Attitudes to Equality and Human Rights Technical Paper. Research Series

This report maps the data available on attitudes to equality and human rights issues in Ireland collected in European surveys over the period 2000 to 2018. These surveys provide a rich source of evidence for researchers and policymakers in Ireland. We identify a total of 1,509 relevant questions from a search of over 125 attitude surveys. These questions are categorised according to the groups and topics addressed. We find that attitudes towards minority ethnic/nationality groups, gender/gender roles and social welfare recipients are the most widely covered. Questions on attitudes towards religious minorities, age groups/ageism, family status, disability and sexual orientation are much less common. Moreover, while the frequency of attitude questions relating to sexual orientation has increased over the period, questions on age and disability groups have declined. Within these equality groups the surveys cover a range of topics including social distance, social contact, tolerance and policy preferences

Hidden versus revealed attitudes: A list experiment on support for minorities in Ireland. ESRI Report July 2020.

New research published today reveals the gap between what people say in public about their attitudes to minorities in Ireland, and what they say when afforded anonymity. The study challenges previous assumptions about people’s views, and has implications for policy approaches to foster interculturalism

Origin and integration: a study of migrants in the 2016 Irish Census. ESRI Report June 2020.

Many migrant groups have higher educational attainment but higher unemployment levels, according to a new ESRI study

MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT AND THE COST OF CHILDCARE IN IRELAND. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 73 SEPTEMBER 2018

Childcare has become an increasingly salient issue for Irish society as the proportion of women with young children in the workforce has grown over recent decades. International comparisons of the price of formal care for preschool children indicate that Ireland has one of the highest costs as a proportion of household income across the OECD. The costs of childcare are frequently invoked as a barrier to maternal employment, especially for low-income groups and lone parents. However, there are relatively few systematic analyses of the real costs for families or of how these costs influence employment outcomes for mothers. This study draws on information from the Growing Up in Ireland (GUI) Survey to investigate childcare costs for children up to the age of five, with a particular focus on costs at age three before children enter the school system, which is the peak period for participation in non-parental childcare in terms of both the numbers of children and hours of childcare. The GUI is the largest source of nationally representative data on the types and costs of childcare for pre-school children in Ireland

JOB STRESS AND WORKING CONDITIONS: IRELAND IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE. ESRI RESEARCH SERIES NUMBER 84 NOVEMBER 2018

Stress in the workplace is an issue of growing concern. There is an increasing recognition that job stress has significant implications for the physical and mental wellbeing of workers and costs for employers and the economy. The British Health and Safety Executive estimates the cost of work-related stress, anxiety and depression to be in the region of £5.2 billion in the UK for the year 2013/2014. Health and Safety legislation in Ireland, and the EU more widely, specifies that employers have a duty of care to ensure that the safety, health and welfare of employees are not unreasonably compromised by work. The duty of care extends to personal injury and the mental health of workers. In the current study, we use two waves of a European-wide dataset, the European Working Conditions Survey, carried out in 2010 and 2015, to examine the working conditions that are associated with job stress. We focus in particular on Ireland and the UK, but also make comparisons with other countries in Western Europe. We draw on prevailing theories and the extensive research-evidence base to identify a range of job demands that are potential stressors and job resources that are proposed to moderate the effects of high work demands, and thus reduce job stress

Immigration, identity, and anonymity: intentionally masked intolerance in Ireland

Newcomers to Ireland confront a context of reception shaped by large-scale historical emigration and more recent immigration defined by an increasingly diverse set of origin contexts, both within and outside the European Union (EU). How has the Irish population responded to these groups, and how openly do Irish residents express their views toward different immigrant groups? We test this response using a survey experiment, which offered respondents an anonymous way to express any negative attitudes to immigrant groups they may have had. Results from the survey experiment show that Irish residents’ support for Black and Polish immigrations is overstated when expressed directly. In contrast, their sentiment toward Muslim immigrants is notably insensitive to the level of anonymity provided, indicating little difference between overt and covert expression of support (or antipathy). In other words, when race/ethnicity or EU origin is made salient, Irish respondents are more likely to mask negative sentiment. When Islam is emphasized, however, Irish antipathy is not masked. We find that in-group preferences, instead of determining support in an absolute sense, shape the reluctance with which opposition to immigrant groups is overtly expressed