Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and committee for their invitation to attend to discuss the issue of Traveller participation in higher education. Our third national access plan for equity of access to higher education sets out our current strategy to address under-representation in higher education by groups identified in the plan. The plan identifies Irish Travellers as one of the target groups that is currently under-represented in higher education. Members should note that the plan runs from 2015 to 2019.

Following the publication of the current national access plan, NAP, the Department launched PATH. This funding stream enables innovative approaches to support the delivery of targets in the national access plan. PATH's main objective is to increase participation in higher education by our national access plan target groups, including the Traveller community. Each of the three new PATH funding strands is expected to have a positive impact on Traveller numbers in higher education. The three PATH funding streams will help us to better understand and address the barriers to access to higher education for Travellers. The feedback from students supported by PATH is positive.

A progress review of the NAP published last year extended the lifetime of the plan to 2021. This will enable us to gather data under our data plan so that we can make informed decisions regarding the next NAP. The progress review illustrated that even though there were increases in participation of Travellers in higher education, there remains quite a task ahead to meet the access target, which is a modest target set in the plan. The baseline of just 35 Traveller students in higher education has increased to 61 in 2017 to 2018. This is still short of the target of 80, which we will seek to achieve before the end of the current plan in 2021. Self-identification is the only method by which information on Traveller participation in higher education can be gathered. In this regard, the progress review highlighted that the number of Traveller students in higher education may be higher than officially recorded, as some Traveller students have chosen not to self-identify. That in itself shows a fear among some Travellers about declaring their membership of the Traveller community. This is despite the fact, as I know, that they are very proud to be part of the Traveller tradition.

Arising from the progress review published in 2018, priority actions were published in the action plan for education in 2019 and a commitment was made to the development of an action plan for increasing Traveller participation in higher education. Following a consultation process, I launched the action plan for increasing Traveller participation in higher education last week in Technological University Dublin. The purpose of the action plan is to bring a particular focus of attention and afford particular priority to certain actions. Its overall objective is to advance Traveller participation in higher education within the context of approaches on retention and transition of Travellers across the education spectrum.

Progress has been made on increasing participation in higher education by under-represented target groups. However, we are placing a particular focus on Traveller participation in higher education to ensure we meet the NAP target for this key under-represented group by 2021. It is intended that the various initiatives under the strands of the programme for access to higher education are aimed at increasing Traveller participation. This will assist in the realisation of the target and enhance our understanding of the barriers that exist in respect of Traveller participation in higher education.

I am grateful to the committee for the opportunity to address it today.