Ms Maria Joyce:

To add to what Ms Brack has already said, one of the key aspects is the lack of political will to make it happen. There is a lack of political leadership in terms of getting behind the issue of ethnic recognition. We are starting to see that we have allies, but it has long been the case that there was no political leadership or courage in terms of recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority. That is at the core of the reason we have not seen political leadership on this issue. I do not know whether that is as a result of pressure being put on at local level or whatever, but this issue should be beyond local politics. Political leadership should be shown on it. Statements are made. We come in and make submissions to the committee but a long time passes before anything happens. We need those political champions, and we need political leadership from our politicians. Unfortunately, we do not see a representative of the Traveller community in the Houses of the Oireachtas but there are measures that can be taken to address that. That does not have to be a complicated process. We have seen a catch-up as a result of quotas around women in terms of the inequality in the numbers of men and women in the Dáil. Initiatives could be put in place that would allow for visibility of Travellers in the Houses of the Oireachtas but, primarily, the problem is the lack of political leadership.