Mr. Martin Collins:

I thank the Chairperson and members for the invitation. As the Chair said, we made a submission which people can read at their leisure. In the few minutes I have, I will go through some of the salient points from the submission. In doing so, I am sure I will reinforce what the Irish Traveller Movement and National Traveller Women's Forum presented to the committee at previous meetings.

It is great to have this opportunity to speak to the committee and present some of the challenges and issues facing Travellers with regard to the provision of culturally appropriate accommodation. I have been involved in the struggle and movement for approximately 40 years. I first got involved in 1985 when the key issue for Travellers was the lack of accommodation provision across the country. Nearly 40 years later, the key issue for the community remains the lack of accommodation provision. This speaks volumes and points to an institutional legal framework and processes and systems that are inherently dysfunctional. Despite the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, which puts a legal obligation on local authorities to implement their Traveller accommodation programmes, TAPs, the system, structures and processes in place are inherently incapable of delivering what is required in terms of the provision of Traveller accommodation.

We see that in the rising number of Traveller families who are becoming homeless. We now have approximately 1,600 Traveller families who are homeless. They are either living on unauthorised sites, doubling up with family members, living on the side of the road or living in bed and breakfast accommodation. That equates to approximately 9,500 individuals. It is important to emphasise that we can become very desensitised when we talk about numbers and statistics. However, behind those numbers and statistics are people - 9,500 men, women and children who lack basic services, such as access to running water, sanitation and refuse collection. This is beyond a humanitarian crisis. It is nothing short of scandalous that we allow this situation to prevail in what is a very rich developed country. Travellers are living in conditions that are akin to those in developing countries. It is a shame on our political classes and leaders that this humanitarian crisis is allowed to continue.

Accommodation is recognised in international law as a lynchpin to exercise other basic human rights, such as access to health, education and employment. In our context, secure accommodation also facilitates nomadism. Travellers who have secure accommodation in the winter months are more inclined to go travelling during the summer. It is important to acknowledge that.

As I said, the system is inherently incapable. Traveller accommodation is too heavily politicised at local authority level. There is also inherent racism in the local authority system whereby politicians will not vote for Traveller accommodation. For this reason, the Traveller organisations have been calling for the establishment of a national independent accommodation agency to have the necessary mandate, legislative framework and resources to get on and do what local authorities have failed to do for the past 40 or 50 years.

It is said that the definition of madness is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results. We have been doing it for 40 years and we know what the results are. We want an agency that will be modelled on what was established in the North of Ireland, namely, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. It was set up at a particular time and in a particular context where there was inherent sectarianism in the allocation of housing in the North of Ireland whereby Catholics were not given a fair share of housing. We want an independent national agency to be established.

We welcome the trailer loan scheme. Members will note that I used the word "trailer". I insist on using the word "trailer". I despise the word "caravan", and even more so when it comes from the lips of a Traveller. I am on a mission to reclaim the word "trailer". The trailer loan scheme is very important.

We totally support it, but it needs to be improved. There will only be 80 allocations for trailers in 2024. That it totally insufficient. There is significant demand for more trailers to be made available. The budget of €40,000 to purchase a trailer is too low. It is insufficient and should be reconsidered. In addition, we support the call by MABS for a parallel rental scheme for Travellers who do not want to buy a trailer. Two schemes running in parallel are needed.

I will sum up the key points. We are calling for the establishment of a national independent agency, as well as full implementation of the recommendations of the independent expert group review. There needs to be a moratorium on all evictions. We cannot allow evictions to be taking place where Travellers have been failed by the Government and local authorities. We want the introduction of an ethnic identifier across all data sets in order to know precisely what is involved. If there is difficulty in measuring it, there is difficulty in managing it. Finally, there needs to be better alignment between the Traveller accommodation programmes and city and county development plans. If Traveller accommodation is not specified in city and county development plans, local residents have strong legal grounds - such grounds have been used - to block the provision of Traveller accommodation. I will leave it at that.