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

There were six groups who scored below the average when respondents were asked about their level of comfort of that equality group living next door to them:

• A person who is a Traveller was scored 7.1
• A person who is Roma was scored 7.1
• A person with alcohol addiction issues was scored 6.7
• A person with drug addiction issues was scored 5.1
• A person with a criminal record for violence was scored 4.2
• A person with a criminal record for selling drugs was scored 3.7

P.9 Table 1. Attitude towards participant living near someone with a certain characteristic, with 1 being very uncomfortable and 10 being very comfortable

P.10 Respondents gave a person with alcohol addiction issues an average score of between 6.7 and only 45% were comfortable if they lived next door. The final category has much lower scores; between 3.7 and 5.1 out of ten and approximately only a quarter or less of the population are comfortable living next to a person with drug addiction issues, or a criminal record for violence or selling drugs. These groups have net negative scores for comfort – more people are uncomfortable living next to these three groups than are comfortable living next to these groups.

P.12 Table 3. Attitude towards participant’s child being in a love relationship with someone with a certain characteristic, with 1 being very uncomfortable and 10 being very comfortable

P.13 When asked how uncomfortable or comfortable they would feel if one of their children was in a love relationship with a person from the different equality groups, high levels of comfort with the different groups were recorded.There are 11 groups that score less than 8 out of 10.

• A person with an intellectual disability: 7.9
• A person who is an asylum seeker: 7.9
• A person who is Muslim: 7.9
• A person who is bisexual: 7.7
• A person with mental health difficulties: 7.0
• A person who does not identify as male nor female i.e. non-binary person: 7.0
• A transgender person i.e. someone who was born one gender but changed to the other: 6.9
• A person who is Roma: 6.4
• A person who is a Traveller: 6.3
• A person with alcohol addiction issues: 4.3
• A person with drug addiction issues: 3.4

These can be seen as two different groups; a group where approximately half of people are comfortable with their child being in a relationship with someone from that equality group and they score 6.3 out of 10 or more, and a second group of people with alcohol or drug addiction issues who score 4.3 or 3.4 out of 10 and less than 20% are comfortable with their children being in a relationship with an individual with one of these issues. These two groups (alcohol and drug addiction issues) are the only groups with net negative comfort levels (more people are uncomfortable than comfortable having their child in a relationship with these groups).