Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 April 2024

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community

Traveller Education Policy: Department of Education

Ms Cliodhna O'Neill:

At present, we are concentrating on developing our consultation process and all the work we are doing on the draft strategy, which we hope to publish by quarter 2 of this year. That is a commitment in the Department's action plan for this year. As I said, the final phase of the consultation process is taking place today. We have done an enormous amount of work on research and preparation for materials to be published along with publication of the draft report.

One of my colleagues will probably speak to the amount of work and the detail that has gone into that. I am not certain but I believe that the work was brought to a particular point and was not completed for various reasons. Following a review of the work that was undertaken, extended and additional consultation and research, etc., we are now in a strong position. We are confident that we will be able to publish the report at the end of quarter 2 as we have committed to.