Ms Jacinta Brack:

One particular judgment was made in May this year, under Article 16 of the European Social Charter, whereby Ireland was found to be in violation of five grounds regarding Traveller accommodation, specifically the way in which Travellers are evicted from accommodation and inadequate safeguards, and the inadequate provision of Traveller accommodation. This bears a context here because the committee did not find this on the basis of discrimination, although ethnicity might be something which would have supported the argument. It found Ireland to be in violation on five grounds. The other recent finding was from the European Commission, which found that Ireland will possibly face infringement because of its lack of recognition of Traveller ethnicity and with regard to the inadequate provision of Traveller accommodation. The Committee of Ministers recently endorsed the findings of the collective complaint under the charter, on October 5, and the finding of the European Commission was just a week ago.