Ms Jacinta Brack:

Initially, the State was reluctant to recognise ethnicity on the basis of cost and potential legal implications. Those are certainly the arguments that have been put forward, say, in the past five years. Prior to that, as Mr. Joyce mentioned earlier, the State did not acknowledge Travellers' wish and desire to be recognised. The first admission of this came under a universal periodic review, UPR, process, under which Ireland was examined, and at which the then Minister, Alan Shatter, was the first Minister to say that he recognised Travellers' wish and desire and that he would give clear consideration to the matter. The Attorney General's office has now confirmed that there is no such impediment.