Ms Lisa Connell:

Something the Chair mentioned, and Mr. Joyce also addressed, is the very important issue of decent employment and ensuring we have decent pay for Travellers in the workplace and that there is the prospect of further meaningful work. While internships are important, they are not sufficient in terms of meaningful and long-lasting employment. We need to make sure that in employment Travellers are safe, their dignity and respect is upheld in the workplace, discrimination is not allowed and the duty of care to all staff is upheld in the workplace. It is very important that employers ensure they have unconscious bias training in the workplace to ensure these provisions are met.

At present, quotas are in place in the public sector for employing people with disabilities. There is certainly no reason we cannot look at this for members of the Traveller community. When such quotas are not upheld, it is important that we look at what happens subsequently to ensure employers meet these quotas and other requirements. The role of the trade union movement is that we have the ability to collectively bargain on a sectoral basis to ensure some of these provisions are met. Certainly the public sector is a very important area. It is about decent employment and decent employment prospects.