Ms Kathleen Sherlock:

On behalf of Mincéirs Whiden, Cant for Travellers Talking, Ireland's only all-Traveller forum, I thank the Seanad Public Consultation Committee for the opportunity to provide our organisation's input. I thank also the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, who has been completely supportive of Mincéirs Whiden and better outcomes for Travellers. I thank also the committee members who are here today. My submission today is on the importance of political participation for Irish Travellers but before moving to that subject, I will provide the committee with a brief profile of Mincéirs Whiden and our objectives and work.

Mincéirs Whiden, Cant for Travellers Talking, Ireland's only all-Traveller forum, was formed in 2004 with a focus on creating a safe space in which Travellers could come together to discuss issues affecting our community and to identify collective responses to them. Our membership is open to all members of the Traveller community and our mission is to promote the recognition and understanding of Irish Traveller culture and identity as Ireland's only indigenous ethnic minority group who have been part of the fabric of society for more than a millennium. Mincéirs Whiden works towards the full participation and inclusion of Irish Travellers in all aspects of economic, social, cultural and political life in Ireland whereby our community is treated with respect and equality and our people can be proud and confident to hold up their Travellers identity without fear or prejudice. We believe in equality and justice and work in solidarity with human rights groups and organisations. When we talk about the issues affecting our community, we must be clear about what those issues are. These are critical issues of life, death and the actual survival of our people and do not only involve culture and cultural identity, albeit these are also of very great importance to Travellers.

Ireland has a total Traveller population currently of under 40,000 people, which is an astonishingly small number for a community of people who have been part of this country for more than a millennium. To get to grips with why the Traveller population is so small, we need only look at the findings of research conducted on the Irish Traveller community, including the 2010 all-Ireland health study, the ESRI report on the Traveller community and behaviour and attitudes research on Travellers.

From this research, we know that 75% of Travellers are under the age of 35 years and that half of all Travellers will die before the age of 40 years, while the remainder will only live into their early 60s, with a tiny number reaching 70 years of age and beyond. That is the painful and devastating reality for the Traveller community. For this to be the reality for any community anywhere in the world in the 21st century would be shocking. That it is happening in Ireland, one of the most developed and advanced countries in the world, is difficult to understand but understand it we must. That means looking directly at the experiences for and the challenges the Traveller community faces such as the deepening crisis in Traveller accommodation provision, the escalation of suicide rates, chronic ill health as a result of poverty and poor living conditions, an 84% unemployment rate and poor educational attainment.

We are excluded and marginalised and experience blatant discrimination on an ongoing basis because of our Traveller identity. For decades Traveller groups and activists have campaigned for fair treatment and equality for the Traveller community, but it continues to be an uphill battle as we see our community rapidly deteriorate before our eyes. As Traveller activists and development workers in the community, we are aware that the Traveller community is going through a crisis, the likes of which we have never experienced before. We recognise that the anti-Traveller bias in society plays a part in this crisis. However, it must be stated, as painful as it is, that the root cause is the result of successive Governments’ actions and inactions related to the Traveller community. No community of people has been impacted on so negatively by political decisions and inactions than the Traveller community. We certainly hope no other community will experience what we have experienced.

Mincéirs Whiden is calling on political leaders and politicians in all parties to recognise the underlying cause of the crisis in the Traveller community. We call on them to take decisive action and implement policies to undo the damage of the past which will set about creating better outcomes for the Traveller community now and into the future. An important step was recognition by the State of Traveller ethnicity on 1 March 2017. Mincéirs Whiden recognises that for real change to happen for Traveller people, the Traveller community must have a voice in decision-making arenas. To that end, in the past few years it has dedicated a significant portion of its time and energy to raising awareness of the importance of political participation within the Traveller community, as well as delivering Traveller-specific voter education training. In February we held a national Traveller political participation conference, the first of its kind, at which we launched our political participation training handbook, Mobilising Irish Travellers’ Political Participation Before, During and After Elections. At the conference three Traveller candidates launched their campaigns for the 2019 local elections. As a result of the conference, two other members of the Traveller community also ran as election candidates. Having five members of the Traveller community running as political candidates was historic for the Traveller community. It is important to build on this and support future Traveller political participation.

As a society, we have to recognise the challenges facing members of the Traveller community in contesting elections, including anti-Traveller bias and how small our community is. Travellers make up just over 0.5% of the general population. There is a need to implement legislative positive measures to ensure Traveller inclusion in political participation at local and national level. Travellers remain largely excluded from decision-making and the wider political process. Regardless of commitments in the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy, NTRIS, recommendations made by the advisory committee for the protection of national minorities and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, to date, the State has not adopted actions or positive measures to improve the representation of Travellers in political institutions and decision-making. We recommend that the State undertake legislative and positive measures to ensure the inclusion of Travellers in political participation in local and national government; reserve specific seats for members of the Traveller community in the Dáil, the Seanad and on local councils; and support Traveller political participation and political representation training.

Traditionally, Travellers have been on the margins of society. They do not have a background in being part of the decision-making process. To address this, there is a need for in-depth training within the Traveller community. We must ensure meaningful consultation with Traveller organisations and enhance their role in developing and monitoring policy responses to Traveller developments. We must incorporate decision-making powers within the Traveller consultative structures. We must resource independent national and local Traveller organisations to ensure Travellers will be mainstreamed into a range of social inclusion initiatives at local and national level. We recommend the creation of employment opportunities for members of the Traveller community in all Departments and internships as a measure to address the 84% unemployment rate in the Traveller community.

There is a need to implement effective hate crime-speech legislation to protect the Traveller community which continues to be impacted on negatively by discrimination and racism, as well as enacting strong measures to ensure Travellers will not be negatively targeted by political candidates in election campaigns. There is a need to develop new housing Traveller accommodation legislation which will include sanctions for local authorities which do not meet their obligations to the Traveller community. The Department of Health and the HSE must publish and implement the national Traveller health action plan as a matter of urgency, including the establishment of a planning advisory body on Traveller health, with dedicated staff and budgets to drive its delivery and implementation. Alongside this as a priority, the Government needs to address the serious mental health crisis in the Traveller community which is claiming far too many lives and leaving families devastated and young orphaned children behind.