Ms Ronnie Fay:

Deputy Ó Broin is correct that not all Travellers want to live on group housing schemes or on halting sites and the issue he has raised is choice. They need to have a real choice and one of the problems is they have not had it, which is why there was a increase in private rented accommodation from 2% of Travellers to 27% between 2002 and 2013. There has since been an exodus because of costs, racism, mental health and children's issues. That is not a choice, no more than it is for the general community. We encourage the Government to have a public social housing programme and build homes. We also encourage the inclusion of a clause in respect of community gain. If Traveller accommodation is being built, given the high rate of unemployment, could a percentage of Travellers not be employed as labourers, landscapers and so on? These measures, which are relevant and possible and which would give added value, should be examined.

I was on record as saying regarding Carrickmines that we had gone from bouquets to boulders within a week, which should not be forgotten. There was significant solidarity, which was important because it showed Travellers that people care. Within a week, a small number of people, and it is always a minority, objected to the development of an emergency facility for them there. Goodwill does not last long and we want institutional mechanisms that will guarantee Travellers their human rights and protect them from discrimination, racism and hostility.

The Deputy is dead right regarding the programme for Government that we are disappointed about the lack of visibility in it of Travellers and Roma. That is not unrelated to the fact that they are not visible in most political parties and there is no public representative from those backgrounds at national level. We had some in Tuam, for example, at urban district council level but these people do not get elected. It is difficult when one considers the Traveller population and how dispersed it is. That will not happen without affirmative action and, therefore, we would like quotas. It is ironic that in Romania, for example, seats are reserved in parliament for Roma. Roma representation is, therefore, guaranteed. These issues could also be addressed.

With regard to the question about good examples, the Civil Service internship scheme was wonderful but the problem was it was only for six months and when it ended, that was it. That could be mainstreamed. It is not rocket science. Much of this is documented but it has to be put into practice.

In one of our recommendations, we propose that the Housing Agency should undertake a specific study of the current Traveller accommodation crisis, to be published by August 2017, and to carry out an independent national assessment of the state of Traveller-specific accommodation. I would hope that would get us over the "We said, you said" interaction and local authorities hiding figures. There are many recommendations and I only highlighted some we hope might address the issue.

Our big concern is that Travellers are increasingly becoming more segregated and there is increased ghettoisation of Travellers. I recall when I first started working with Travellers in 1984, there was a football pitch and a playground in Avila Park, Finglas. There is nothing but houses there now. The proposal is to build houses on every spare bit of land, which can lead to all sorts of conflict, including inter-family conflict, because incompatible families are often forced together. That is a hostage to fortune.

The resources that were wasted on the evictions in Dundalk, for example, could be put into positive developments. Let us get over this. It is not insurmountable. Traveller organisations at national and local level are ready, willing and able to work with the State. We need to be given the opportunity.

The programme for Government refers to the development of the national Traveller-Roma inclusion strategy, which is part of a European framework, and we are hopeful that something will come out of that but that cannot be seen to let everybody else off the hook. The Department of Health has to produce a new national Traveller health strategy.

It has not allowed the Traveller Health Advisory Committee to meet since October 2012. It is disgraceful. In terms of accommodation, we need the agency and we hope the committee will recommend that. It is not an accommodation agency, it is an agency within its brief and it could maybe focus on accommodation in its first year of being. We need stuff in health, education and across the board.

I thank the committee for giving us the opportunity this morning and I encourage it to look at the Roma issue in its deliberations. I remind people that at the end of the day we are talking about travellers as human beings who have a right to human rights. That is all we are asking for - basis human rights.