Ms Sinéad Lucey:

The legal implications happen at an international and a domestic level. There are quite different consequences, depending on the context. The legal implications at an international level are being played out in the sense that we are being increasingly criticised by expert international bodies for not taking the step of recognising Traveller ethnicity. Those observations are on the record and they do not do the State credit at this stage.

At a domestic level, it depends on the type of case that arises and the exposure. Ethnicity has arisen in the context of domestic proceedings, and while in general they have not gone to a full court hearing, there are certainly implications for the State. It would be difficult to imagine a situation where the United Kingdom precedent would not be followed in Ireland. The same evidence would be adduced before the court, and the same experts and the same arguments. It would be almost impossible for the State to defend its position in that regard, and undesirable to be doing so as well.