Lucy – Lucy Michael Research, Training and Consultancy

New EU Fundamental Rights Report

Electoral manipulation, violence against women, online hate: Testing times for fundamental rights in 2025

Threats to democracy, stark levels of violence against women and rights abuses at the EU’s borders. These are some of the key challenges detailed in FRA’s Fundamental Rights Report 2025. The report provides telling evidence of fundamental rights under threat across Europe, a wake-up call for Member States and EU Institutions. With 2025 proving to be even more challenging, they must prevent the erosion of rights and stop democratic backsliding.

The Fundamental Rights Report 2025 focuses on key fundamental rights developments and gaps in the EU in 2024. These include:

Threats to democracy: disinformation and misinformation, the growing use of AI and harmful rhetoric threatened free and fair elections across the EU.

Widespread violence against women: 1 in 3 women in the EU still experiences gender-based violence.

Pervasive discrimination, racism and rising hate online: Muslims, Jews, Black people and LGBTIQ people face increasing levels of discrimination, hate and racism. Harassment, hate speech and physical violence are a growing concern.

Ill treatment of migrants: the EU issued new migration and asylum rules. Reports of rights violations along EU borders continued in 2024 and over 3,500 people died or went missing at sea.

New digital regulations: the EU’s efforts to regulate online platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) are an important step for the protection of fundamental rights. The Digital Services Act and the AI Act are key measures to curb illegal and harmful online content, disinformation, and the impact of discriminatory algorithms, but strong and consistent enforcement will be essential to ensure that technology respects human rights.

To overcome these challenges, FRA has called on the EU and its Member States to:

Ensure fair, transparent and safe elections: provide sufficient resources to implement and enforce EU laws to guard against electoral manipulation online. Effectively tackle threats of violence and intimidation during elections.
Protect women from violence: enhance support to victims by improving reporting channels and enable women to come forward. Train frontline staff like the police and doctors in providing victim-appropriate services. Tackle the rise of cyberviolence by properly enforcing the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Directive on Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.
Tackle all forms of racism: act to tackle rising racism, antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred. Collect data to feed into EU and national anti-racism laws and policies. Provide a safer online space for all and act against online hate.
Strengthen fundamental rights safeguards at borders: improve search and rescue practices to save lives at sea. Provide safer conditions for processing new arrivals. Investigate reports of rights violations and establish independent monitoring mechanisms at the EU’s external borders.
Reinforce rights protection online: assess and monitor the impact of AI on fundamental rights. Improve awareness of potential AI biases. Enforce the new EU digital regulations to counter rising disinformation and online hate.

You can read the full report by FRA here: Fundamental Rights Report 2025

We were pleased to provide the Ireland country report again this year for this important EU-wide update.

You can read our report here: Fundamental Rights Report Ireland 2025

Policing experiences feel unsafe for Brazilians and People of African Descent

A new landmark research study by the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) and published today by the Policing Authority reveals that people of African descent and Brazilians in Ireland report widespread discriminatory policing, racial profiling, and a deep lack of trust in An Garda Síochána.

A new landmark research study by the Irish Network Against Racism (INAR) with Lucy Michael Research Training and Consultancy, commissioned by the Policing Authority, reveals that people of African descent and Brazilians in Ireland report widespread discriminatory policing, racial profiling, and a deep lack of trust in An Garda Síochána.

Download the full report

The study presents the most detailed evidence to date of the negative experiences of policing among these communities including accounts of traumatic stop-and-search incidents, including strip searches, wrongful arrests, and property damage, with long-lasting psychological effects and ongoing impacts on employment, study, and family life. The findings also note the prevalence of vexatious charges brought after traffic stops, particularly against Black drivers.

Victim Reporting: The report highlights multiple instances where victims were mistreated at Garda stations, denied information, or retraumatised during police interactions — raising serious concerns about Ireland’s compliance with the EU Victims’ Rights Directive. Many participants reported a deep reluctance to report crimes, including hate crimes and repeat harassment, as a result. Migrants expressed concern about potential immigration consequences, and some described traumatic outcomes when they did seek help. Even community workers with long-standing Garda relationships expressed a loss of faith in the system, describing a growing sense of hopelessness about accountability.

Domestic Violence: While some victims noted improvements in Garda responses to domestic violence, these were highly inconsistent. Others reported distressing experiences, including Gardaí arriving at scenes and treating victims with suspicion or hostility based on their ethnicity. Some survivors regretted calling Gardaí, saying it caused further trauma or endangered their legal status.

Public Order Policing: The report reveals frequent and traumatising public order encounters, especially among younger men, including strip searches, wrongful arrests, and unnecessary escalation of minor incidents. These encounters were often described as racially motivated, leaving long-lasting psychological impacts and causing people to avoid public spaces or interaction with Gardaí entirely.

Both in cases of domestic violence and stops in public, Afro-Brazilians’ experiences more closely resembled those of African and African-Irish participants than White Brazilians’.

The Garda Síochána are viewed, overall, as providing a diminished service to minority ethnic communities and actively harming them through discriminatory policing. This perception is particularly strong among younger individuals and those who have lived in Ireland for a longer period. Positive personal interactions with individual Gardaí through community policing has only partly led to increased confidence among African and Brazilian groups. Both groups expressed concern too about the effectiveness of Garda Síochána Ombudsman’s Commission (GSOC).

The survey results showed

66% say Gardaí do not treat everyone fairly.
Over half of respondents said Gardaí treat people from their ethnic background more strictly than others.
Only 19% believed they would be treated fairly if they made a complaint against Gardaí.

The report findings raise questions about the extent to which the regulatory and oversight framework provided for in the Policing, Security and Community Safety (PSCS) Act 2024 will be fit for purpose in respect of reducing racial discrimination. This will be a question for the new bodies, the Policing and Community Safety Authority (PCSA) and Fiosrú Office of the Police Ombudsman.

Download the Key Findings poster

“What this research makes painfully clear is that for many Brazilians and people of African descent, encounters with the Gardaí are highly unpredictable in their outcomes and, despite some positive interactions, overall, there is no sense of safety for many people,” said Dr. Lucy Michael, co-author of the report. “The lack of consistency and accountability is not just failing these communities through overpolicing and underprotection — it’s actively alienating them.”

Addressing these challenges requires policy changes, enhanced training, and sustained community engagement. The report urges a systemic response to the findings, including a legal and structural shift in how minority communities are policed in Ireland. Key concerns for further investigation include the rapid escalation of minor offences to arrest and detention, inadequate communication of rights, and evidence of mistreatment, including racial abuse leading to distrust and trauma.

“Every contact between the Garda Síochána and communities leaves a trace.” said Shane OCurry, Director of INAR. “Every negative contact risks damaging the relationship between the Garda Síochána and entire communities, to everyone’s detriment. This is why we need more effective oversight and accountability structures to ensure that such instances never occur. Communities need to see oversight structures working, and to have the confidence that complaints of improper conduct are taken seriously and investigated rigorously and impartially.”

Download the recommendations poster

The recommendations call for:

A legal ban on racial profiling with practice guidance, reviews of current operations, and recording processes.
Improved oversight of racial discrimination complaints, including published numbers of complaints, and more robust investigation where discrimination is alleged.
Regulation against use of vexatious charges.
Mandatory anti-racism training for all Gardaí.
A legislative framework for the collection and publication of disaggregated ethnic data across the criminal justice system.
Intercultural partnerships in each division to address outreach, trust building, dialogue, and reviews of policy and practice.

Protecting the rights of victims of online fraud

New research in Ireland for the EU Fundamental Rights Agency

With the increased shift of everyday activities to the online environment, more and more individuals fall victim to crimes committed online.

Online fraudsters target millions of victims across the EU every day, generating multiple billions in illicit profits every year , and the impact of these crimes is significant and increasing. Victims of online fraud are often revictimized. (Europol, Online fraud schemes: a web of deceit)

More than half (56%) of people answering a European Commission survey in 2019 had experienced at least one type of fraud or scam.

The impact of crime committed online can be significant for its victims. It can cause serious economic and reputational damage and can have a negative financial and emotional impact on individuals. A recent report shows that people fear being “hacked for fraud/spying purposes” more than attacks to their personal safety” (IPSOS, 2019).

The reporting rate remains low, and victims very often are too ashamed to report this type of crime. Additionally, victims of online fraud very often need to perform several actions in order to protect themselves from the further consequences of experiencing fraud. For example, they need to change their email addresses or passwords, report their payment cards, call the banks to try to stop the transfer etc. In other words, they need to perform several steps in order to possibly recover their money and safeguard themselves against repeat victimisation. These steps can be complex and challenging.

Victims of online financial fraud are covered by the EU legislation concerning the support and protection of victims, including the EU Victims Rights Directive and the Directive on combating fraud and counterfeiting of non-cash means of payment . Victims of online fraud should receive appropriate information, adequate support, and protection, and can participate in criminal proceedings. Victims of fraud should have sufficient access to information including advice on how to protect themselves against the future negative consequences of the offences (such as for example identity theft as a consequence of online fraud). EU Member States are also obliged to take preventative action against online fraud.

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights guarantees the right to property (Article 17), and victims are guaranteed the right to effective remedy (Article 47). Article 38 also provides for a high level of consumer protection.

EU Member States must ensure that property rights are sufficiently protected by law in their countries, and that adequate remedies are provided for victims of property crime. Authorities are obliged to conduct effective criminal investigation and, if appropriate, prosecution.

This project will focus on access to justice for victims of online fraud understood as crimes against property involving non-cash means of payment, committed online with the use of a computer, smartphone or other device connected to the internet, by means of deception (or false representation). Some examples of online fraud crimes included are:

Investments fraud
Consumer fraud
Rental fraud
Inheritance fraud
Extortion

As part of the Europe-wide FRANET research team, we will analyse national legislation in Ireland and practice on victims’ rights from the angle of protection of rights of victims of online fraud understood as crimes against property, including in a cross-border context. We will speak with victims of online fraud, as well as financial institutions, online platforms and providers, data protection authorities, civil society, law enforcement authorities, cybersecurity bodies, and consumer protection authorities.

The EU-wide report will provide guidance to EU institutions, EU Agencies such as Europol and Eurojust, and Member States, in particular their law enforcement and justice authorities, about how to effectively ensure rights of victims of online fraud understood as crimes against property.

Mapping and analysis of national human rights structures in the EU

We recently completed research commissioned by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency to explore existing national structures and mechanisms in Ireland and their interactions between EU Member States (and in FRA observer countries), with a focus on their levels of cooperation.

It is important to identify a network of actors at national and sub-national levels for the protection of fundamental rights in the EU, so that FRANET and its partners can identify promising regional and local practices for transnational learning.

This research (which took place between February and April 2024), aimed at:

providing an overall mapping of national structures and mechanisms protecting and promoting fundamental rights, including those that were established or designated directly or indirectly by EU law or policies,
identifying the respective roles and responsibilities of these national structures and mechanisms, including oversight, judicial functions (including providing remedy), collecting data on human rights violations, and promoting fundamental rights in various policy fields (including a focus on especially EU law relevant activities and functions),
providing an overview of the interaction amongst the different national structures and mechanisms and how they relate to the EU layer of governance. In this context also horizontal (not sector-specific), strategic fundamental rights strategies and action plans will be of relevance. Also the interaction with the European (EU and CoE) and international (UN) layer of governance should be covered.
identifying promising practices of cooperation and coordination between national structures and mechanisms for the purpose of transnational learning (these promising practices may also derive from the subnational level).

The Neurodivergent Advantage for Employers

Please note date change to Friday 4 April, 3pm.

Promo image with webinar title, date and time, picture of Lucy Michael, and screenshots of Financial Times and Guardian articles

Harnessing the strengths of neurodivergent individuals can transform your organization, driving innovation, creativity, and resilience. Recent data shows some employers are openly seeking neurodiversity in their organisations. But employer attitudes surveys tell us that employers are largely still resistent to hiring candidates that are open about their neurodivergence. Neurodivergent employees can be reluctant to disclose and seek accommodations where it is not safe to do so, and organisations lose many of the incredible benefits of their skills when that happens.

Backed by the latest research, this webinar is designed for employers, HR professionals, and team leaders who want to build inclusive teams that thrive. Join us to discover actionable strategies and inspiring insights that will help you work with neurodivergent candidates and employees to their full potential.

The webinar is led by Dr Lucy Michael, expert in workplace inclusion and an experienced manager and employer of neurodiverse teams.

Join us on Friday 4 April, 3pm for this free masterclass. Places are limited.

Looking back on 2024

Thank you to everyone who has collaborated with us and supported us.

We are grateful to have worked with great clients this year including:

Atlantic Technological University (ATU)
Belfast City Council
Cairde
Central Bank
Citizens Information Board
DkIT
EU Fundamental Rights Agency
Foras na Gaeilge
IADT
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU)
Irish Network Against Racism (INAR)
Lattanzio KIBS, Italy
Maynooth University
Milieu Consulting, Belgium
Northern Trust
Policing Authority
Public Jobs
SETU
Sky
University College Dublin (UCD)
University of Birmingham

We start 2025 moving into new premises in Dublin city centre and look forward to updating you on that soon!

Evaluation of a Mental Health and Integration programme for International Protection applicants

Pathways to Well-being: Empowering Migrant and Refugee Women’s Mental Health and Integration. Cairde, November 2024.

We recently completed an evaluation for Cairde of their new programme delivering a mental health and integration programme for international protection applicants. Cairde is a national organisation working to tackle health inequalities among minority ethnic communities by improving their access to health services and their participation in health planning and delivery.

This follows our evaluation with Cairde Ireland in 2023 to evaluate their innovative Mental Health and Well-being program for minority ethnic and migrant women in Balbriggan.

Pathways to Well-being is a suite of community-based mental health promotion resources, focusing on a holistic approach. The program integrates lifestyle medicine, positive psychology, stress management, trauma-informed techniques, coaching, and healthy habits.

This programme was specifically piloted for International Protection Applicants (IPAs) living in Direct Provision, addressing the unique mental health and integration challenges faced by this population. Coordinated by Sarah Duku and Emilia Marchelewska, and funded by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

The evaluation concluded:

“Participants actively engaged with the program, adopting various techniques and practices into their daily lives, resulting in observable changes in behaviour and emotional well-being. Most participants attributed these changes directly to the programme’s content and structure. Moreover, they extended the supportive environment they found in the programme by building mutual support relationships within the Direct Provision centre.”

At the time of writing the evaluation report, Cairde has a waiting list of about
80 people, both men and women. Word of mouth has been a strong driver of
interest in the programme. One interested applicant told Cairde staff:
“I want to be as confident as the ladies who participate in the training; we see
them in the corridors.”

The full evaluation report, Pathways to Well-being: Empowering Migrant and Refugee Women’s Mental Health and Integration, is available here.

You can read the previous evaluation report here.

Pathways to Wellbeing: Empowering Migrant Women’s Mental Health

Cairde, March 2024.

New EU FRA report highlights barriers to voting for disabled people in Ireland

29 May 2024

Ahead of the EU elections, this report explores the political participation of people with disabilities. Although some Member States removed restrictions on the right to vote and to stand for elections, barriers still exist. This report is an update of new developments following FRA’s last report published in 2014. It sets out ways forward to ensure people with disabilities have equal opportunities, in line with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Member States have now increasingly adopted disability strategies. However, systematic and meaningful consultation with disabled people’s organisations is still lacking. So is regular training of election authorities and officials on disability discrimination, accessibility and reasonable accommodation. Administrative barriers to obtaining information, registering to vote and obtaining support during elections persist in some Member States.

Key findings include:

All Member States and the EU have ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), although a few Member States have made declarations and reservations, including about Article 12.
Several Member States’ laws have removed restrictions on the right to vote and the right to stand for elections based on legal capacity.
Significant developments were also noted at the EU and Member State levels in terms of accessibility of the voting process, especially regarding accessibility standards provided by law for polling stations, and guidelines on accessibility of polling stations. However, people with visual, hearing or intellectual disabilities still face considerable barriers.
The EU web accessibility directive and the common European standard on web accessibility as well as the audiovisual media services directive have increased access to voting and to information.
Sign language interpretation, audio description and subtitling of key public programmes providing instructions for voting and information on candidates is increasingly provided.

Read the full report and country report below:

Political participation of people with disabilities – new developments

Country research – Political participation 2024 – Ireland

Launch event for the Arts Council ‘Open Up’ report on the experiences of Black artists in Ireland

The report: ‘Open Up: Barriers to funding and opportunities for Black and Black-Irish artists’

In 2022, concern about inequalities in the Awards Data at the Arts Council prompted the commissioning of a report to investigate the reasons for applications from a disproportionate number of Black artists being deemed ‘ineligible’ compared to artists from other ethnic backgrounds.

We found that patterns of racial discrimination in the Irish labour market are reflected in the arts sector. Black artists with equivalent experience and qualifications are offered fewer opportunities & less information and are widely excluded from professional networks.

The launch event

The launch event on Tuesday 23 April brought together a panel of Black artists to discuss the findings and our recommendations, moderated by Arts Council member Melatu-Uche Okorie as panel chair, and artists Joe Odiboh, Esosa Ighodaro, Dafe Orugbo, Ashley Chadamoyo Makombe, and Aisha Bolaji for their responses to the report. Many thanks to all of them for their engagement with the report’s finding and recommendations, and creating a strong opening dialogue with the audience and Arts Council staff to inform the Arts Council’s next steps.

Listen to artist Dafe Orugbo on RTE Morning Ireland responding to our report. https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22387060/

The event was introduced by the Interim Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Arts Council, Hannah Gordis, and Director of Strategic Development Deirdre Behan, who responded to questions on immediate work inside the Arts Council in response to the report (such as a review of the application process, and an increase in supports for first-time applicants) and a forthcoming plan to implement recommendations within the Arts Council and across the arts sector.

What did we find?

We reviewed the application process and found that ineligible applications from Black artists were mainly in one new cohort of first-time applicants, but that on the whole, participation by Black artists in the awards application process had previously been lower than for other groups.

We identified a number of questions for further examination, including: (1) why were ineligible applications mainly in a new cohort of Black artists who were young, male and applying for music awards and (2) why were Black female artists overall more likely to receive awards than female artists from other ethnic groups, but less likely to apply until they were well-established artists?

Our report reflects the findings of a series of interviews with Black artists and arts organisations supporting Black artists. The findings highlight the persistence of discrimination and the impact of social closure amongst professional arts networks, and the effects on how Black artists get to know the Arts Council, access information about how to apply successfully for awards, and secure the necessary elements (venues, programme slots, references, etc.) for a successful application.

The data we investigated on ineligibility actually showed positively that there had been an increase in Black male music artists applying to the Arts Council for the first time. But why did outreach efforts to this group result in failure instead of success for this new group?

The Arts Council application process is well-known to be difficult to navigate and complete, with applicants highly reliant on information and support from formal and informal artists networks in almost every art form and genre. Without that support, 1st time applicants fail.

The Arts Council has only relatively recently recognized the need to confront the negative effects of relying on those informal networks, and the way in which it reinforces wider patterns of exclusion. Their equality analysis of awards data since 2021 underpins this recognition.

Black artists and Arts organizations working with Black artists shared 100s of examples with us of how discriminatory behavior affects their entry to and ability to compete in the publicly-funded arts landscape in Ireland.

The cumulative effect of this discrimination creates an interlinked series of barriers to Black artists at all stages of careers to secure the roles, venues, programme spots, references and professional memberships which are expected in applying for public arts funding.

So a *positive* thing that more Black artists applying, but now a need to address the discrimination across the sector that undermines their capacity to compete fairly, including reform of the application system and work with arts organizations to address discrimination.

The data also showed that Black female artists are *more* successful than other ethnic groups, but there are (proportionally) far fewer and more likely to be very well established in their careers albeit without a history of public funding.

We found Black female artists are persistently excluded from social & professional networks, not elsewhere receiving the informal mentoring that comes with those networks and not being recognized and guided towards public funding until they already winning awards elsewhere.

There is a huge wealth of Black talent in this country, in the arts sector, and the publicly funded arts *will* hugely benefit from outreach and anti-discrimination measures. Black artists in Ireland are actively developing, showing and promoting their work, and some are winning awards and even significant funding in other countries *as Irish artists*. The Irish arts sector is losing out as long as we do not recognize that talent here.
This is not news to organizations working with Black artists already.

We were commissioned by the Arts Council to carry out this research based on our experience in this area, and our previous work (and robust recommendations) on equality data with the Council. The research is a much needed prompt for change within the Arts Council and arts sector

This research would not exist without the expertise and experience shared with us by the Black artists in Ireland who worked with us on it.
It is crucial that the arts sector now work directly with them to implement the recommendations of this report.

Read the full report here or the short summary here

You are welcome to contact us with any questions you have about the report. Queries about the Arts Council’s work in response to our recommendations should be directed to Hannah Gordis at the Arts Council.

Evaluation of the Cairde Balbriggan Mental Health and Well-being Programme for Migrant Women

We are really proud to have worked with Cairde Ireland in 2023 to evaluate their innovative Mental Health and Well-being program for minority ethnic and migrant women in Balbriggan – hear from the participants and the team behind this programme in this video shared by Our Balbriggan, recorded at the report launch event in March 2024.

Cairde is a national organisation working to tackle health inequalities among minority ethnic communities by improving their access to health services and their participation in health planning and delivery. This project was coordinated by Sarah Duku and Emilia Marchelewska.

You can read our evaluation report and recommendations here

We are now beginning the evaluation of a new programme by Cairde Balbriggan delivering mental health and well-being training to asylum seeker and refugee women.