Mr. Laurence Bond:

My colleague has outlined the modalities of how that would happen. In terms of the practical implications, I would see the starting point as recognising people for who they are and affirming that. A key starting point in the history of public policy thinking about Travellers was in the 1960s when the Commission on Itinerancy published its report, 50 years ago this year. This was the first time the State had tried to collectively reflect on the position of Travellers in Irish society. I quoted some of that in our main report and it is well known that there was a specific suggestion that it was essential not to recognise Travellers for who they were. The report said it would call them itinerants even though they refer to themselves as Travellers and want to be referred to as Travellers. That was partly related to saying it was important not to recognise Travellers but rather to insist that they be absorbed into the general community and become like us.

The core message of that report was that Travellers are a problem, and that problem is solved by absorbing them into the community. The whole argument about recognition of ethnicity is fundamentally related to that. This debate has been going on since the 1970s. Not long after that report was published, many Travellers were saying this is not just about absorption into the community. They said Travellers have a history, culture and identity and recognising who they are is core to treating them equally and on a basis of mutual respect between Travellers and the settled community. Public policy has moved a certain way along that road but, clearly, has found it difficult to take the final step in terms of that recognition.

One can think of many parallels. The current argument about access to marriage for gay people is partly about saying one recognises people as not different or a lesser but as of equal value. One recognises that by recognising people for who they are, not insisting they be like oneself. That is our fundamental starting point for the significance of recognition of ethnicity. If one takes that as factor at a symbolic and personal level, it clearly has implications for public policy. If one is to take that seriously and apply it to issues such as development of housing and education policy, one thinks about what this means for how one teaches about Traveller children, teachers Traveller children, how Travellers are engaged in the classroom, etc. We do a lot about Traveller education and housing, but it is about doing them better by taking this into account.