Ms Rachel Doyle:

We are calling for a gender focus in any actions or initiatives that result from today's hearings, as well as for positive action to address the deficit in policy and decision making for Travellers. We recommend, as an immediate first step, a quota system for Travellers on public decision and policy making structures. We recommend an audit of the experiences of Travellers who are now participating on these structures to see what their experiences are like and what kind of a review of structures in needed. We recommend sanctions for those on decision making bodies who make anti-Traveller statements or encourage anti-Traveller statements to be made. We recommend community development funding for autonomous community work with Travellers where Travellers have an independent voice outside the State.

To highlight the public sector equality and human rights duty, public bodies must be brought up to speed on their responsibilities under the Act and ensure that they operate in a manner consistent with the duty. We are calling for resources to Traveller organisations to provide training on anti-racism to public decision-making structures. We recommend the immediate implementation of, and additional resources for, the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy. The following recommendation is one we all really need to get behind: the development and implementation of a new national action plan against racism. The most recent one finished in 2008. We need it for Travellers and other minority groups.