Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As Mr. Martin Ward said earlier, we are a strong community despite the racism and discrimination, and the fewer opportunities available to us and previous generations. We see that inequality every day. John in the restaurant always asks if I have brought in my family yet. I realised today that I do not have one relation in the room so that if anything happens, no one is related to me. I am only messing. I am unfortunate that my parents died very young and I will never have the opportunity to bring them into Leinster House. It is brilliant to have members of our community here and being articulate. I would not expect anything less.

As Mr. Ward said earlier, we always had to get by. Even here, as a Senator, I get a little burnt out. By that, I mean I get a little tired because I am constantly banging tables and talking about issues that the generations before us, including the likes of Nan Joyce, were banging on about. We are still banging on about them today. We are usually protesting outside the grounds of Leinster House or being stopped coming in. Today has been such a special day. As a community, we are sometimes weakened and get bad media coverage or press around us. We have remarkable strength. Today has been an historic day and we are an historic community of people.

We as a community need to keep standing together and standing beside each other, not behind each other, even though a lot of us do have different political opinions. Not every single one of the 40,000 Travellers on the island think the same. It is important we get this message out there. I hope today changed one person's mind in this House and beyond, and at an international level. Not only should our voices be heard, our voices should be of equal value in Irish society. It is okay to be different and we are different. This is why we got the recognition as Irish Travellers. It is okay and let us embrace that and celebrate that. Let us continue to grow in strength after strength as a community. We are not the problem in Irish society. Unfortunately, Irish society is the problem and it has dramatic impact on the well-being of our community overall. It gives me great hope and energy today to see young people coming up, being very articulate and wanting to try within society.

I thank you all so much again. The clerks to the committee are just absolutely fantastic. I could not work with a better group of people. Sometimes the clerk can be very serious and then he has me beside him messing and joking, but you must be yourself. If you can be anything in the world, be yourself and let us embrace that. People say, "Eileen, you are a breath of fresh air." I come in here as a member of the Traveller community. I crack jokes with the ushers, with other politicians, with the kitchen staff and I enjoy the work. It is not about the seriousness of it all of the time. It is also okay to be you.

I hope we will continue to thrive as a community and that we will see more doctors, more members of An Garda Síochána, and more professional footballers within our community. People say, "If you cannot see it, you cannot be it." There is so much out there you can see and want to be but, unfortunately, you do not have the opportunities. We have, however, come a long way in 40 years. It took us nearly 40 years to get recognised as an ethnic minority group. It might take us the next ten or 20 years to get that State apology. Again, we deserve to heal as a community and we deserve to go forward as a community. Thank you all so much.

I will be at the launch of another strategy next week. It is a strategy on Traveller issues again so I will not be here next week. We will adjourn this committee now until a private meeting next Thursday, 25 April, 2024.