Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity: Discussion

2:40 pm

Photo of Pádraig Mac LochlainnPádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will clarify. I appreciate every state has its own laws and framework, but the English, Welsh and Scottish law clearly recognises, following a court decision, that the Irish Traveller community is an ethnic community within that jurisdiction. They have made a legal judgment and it has been published. Would Ms Lucey see that as also applying to Ireland, if we looked at it in the same way? Are there legal implications for the State that it is not fulfilling its international obligations?

I have looked through the judgment but I have not had a chance in the past 24 hours to go back over it in advance of the meeting today. One presumes the judge or judges who made that decision were mindful of the international obligations of England, Scotland and Wales as jurisdictions and that they made the decision based on the evidence presented to them. Is the Government exposing us to legal consequences because of its ongoing denial of ethnicity? This position of the Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority is not new. They have had this position for a number of years. They have given detailed evidence-based submissions and the denial is ongoing. Could there be legal implications for the State, such as challenges, because of this?

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