Dr. Robbie McVeigh:

The Northern Ireland model tended to integrate Traveller equality issues into broader ethnic and race equality issues. That is a good thing, but there has always been less of a Traveller-specific infrastructure in the North. Historically, this was because nothing was done for Travellers. Until direct rule, there was such a level of anti-Traveller prejudice that a Prime Minister welcomed the fact that Traveller numbers were dropping. The notion that it would be perfect if there were no Travellers was expressed not by ordinary politicians, but by the Prime Minister. Nothing was done. As interventions around race began to be made, Travellers were integrated into broader anti-racism interventions. That is the Northern Ireland trajectory.

In the South, there were genuine attempts to address the issue from the Commission on Itinerancy onwards, but in a Traveller-specific way. If one is placing Travellers in a paradigm of ethnicity and racism, the integration model is better.