Ms Ronnie Fay:

The reason we call for an agency is that local authorities are either unwilling or unable to make the provision. The Department dealing with the environment, community and local government oversees that and nothing happens. We are saying that something has to happen. If one looks at what happened in Northern Ireland at the time there was a lot of discrimination in terms of housing provision for Catholics compared to Protestants, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive was set up. The issue was taken out of the hands of the local authorities and the executive looked after the needs of the marginalised Catholics at that time. We believe a similar initiative is needed at this point in time. We know it will not be the panacea for everything. Pavee Point is not calling specifically for a Traveller accommodation agency. The all-Ireland health study was published in 2010 but there is no action plan or new, revised Traveller health strategy. There is no strategy in place for the group in Ireland with the worst health inequalities. The cuts to education funding were minus 86%. Accommodation must be seen in the context of the broader cuts to the Traveller sector under the guise of austerity. Lots of political choices were made because Travellers are not visible in the Oireachtas. No Traveller is a Deputy and there has never been one. We have good champions, some of whom are in the room. We have called on the Taoiseach to consider appointing a Traveller representative to the incoming Oireachtas because it is only when one starts to meet people and to hear the reality that things change.

Members probably heard this week that there was a finding against Ireland in terms of the European Social Charter. We were delighted with that. It is a waste of our time and the State's time to fight battles externally. We say let us work together to solve these issues. There are 36,000 Travellers in the Republic of Ireland. They would all fit in the Hogan Stand and yet it is seen as a major political issue. Much of that has to do with the status of Travellers. The question was asked about what could change in terms of public perception. The Government could acknowledge Travellers as a minority ethic group. That would send a clear signal that this is a community that is indigenous to Ireland that needs to be respected, that has its own culture and way of life and should be recognised and respected for what it is. That alone would change the mindset, because what we see is the assimilationist mindset is still there.

Local authority staff think they will force Travellers into houses. That links into the question asked about Traveller-specific accommodation. Local authorities say the majority of Travellers are looking for standard housing. If one is told it will take 20 years to get a group housing scheme and 40 years to get a transient site but a house is available, one could ask what box one will tick if one is a mother with seven children. The reality is that people often find it very hard to survive in those conditions. Members know better than I do, because they are on this committee and have been doing a lot of work in the area, that public policy in terms of social housing is to push people into the private rented sector. There was a huge change in that the number of Travellers in private rented accommodation grew from approximately 2% to 30% up to 2013. As Ms McCann has outlined, the problem is that often they were not there by choice. Significant issues arose in terms of accessing private rented accommodation in the first place. Most landlords did not want Travellers. As members are aware, they did not even want people on rent supplement. As Travellers are generally in receipt of rent supplement that was a double whammy. The Roma are being totally abused because they are often visible. People know they are Roma and they have a really hard time. Three, four and five families are living in very small spaces. What is happening is appalling and we would encourage the committee to look at the issue in more depth.

In terms of private rented accommodation, first, access was really difficult and, second, surviving in it was even more difficult because often Travellers would have had to bribe the landlord to give them the house by paying over the odds and then they would have to top up the monthly rent. People who are dependent on social protection found it hard to survive because they were giving so much.

Young Travellers are getting into serious debt trying to pay bills, which causes a huge amount of stress. In terms of mental health issues, about which Ms Collins spoke, in Traveller culture when young Traveller women have babies, their aunts, sisters, cousins and nieces support them. They are not used to being left on their own, often living in high rise apartments behind gates. They often hide their identity because they are afraid if the landlord finds out they are Travellers, they will be evicted. They tell their children they cannot play with their cousins. They tell their extended family not to visit them and that they will visit them because they do not want their identity disclosed.

Major issues arise in terms of private rented accommodation. What we see from the statistics I got from the website yesterday is that approximately 200 families have left private rented accommodation but they are going back to their families, doubling up and living in very basic conditions. Something has to give in that regard.

The National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, NTACC, commissioned a report in 2014 and one of the recommendations was to clarify and agree the demand for Traveller-specific accommodation. The NTACC was asked to develop an agreed annual count and national assessment of need for the development of local Traveller accommodation programmes because what the local authorities say is in their area and what the Travellers know is actually the case is always a contentious issue. We need accurate data, and that comes back to the data mentioned earlier.