Mr. Thomas McCann:

I would appreciate that.

I manage a Traveller counselling service. I am a Traveller and I have been involved in Travellers' rights for about 35 years, although some people say it has been for a bit longer than that. Much has been said, and some of the issues I will touch on have been raised. My area of work is mental health. I had intended starting the session by answering one of the questions asked earlier on suicide. A key aspect in that respect is implementation of the recommendations of the all-party Oireachtas committee on mental health. That would be a good start in terms of the implementation of a national Traveller mental health strategy, which was recommended by the all-party Oireachtas committee. It would be a very good start in addressing some of the issues.

I will talk about erosion and exclusion and then touch on the issue of the media. The erosion and exclusion of Traveller culture and identity is due in no small way to State policy of assimilation and absorption, which gave, whether directly or indirectly, permission to all the institutions of the State, including the media, to exclude Traveller culture and identity. The Commission on Itinerancy report stated that all efforts to support Travellers should always have as their ultimate aim the absorption of Traveller culture.

In that regard, the State has responsibility for addressing the issues facing Travellers.

The erosion of Traveller culture has created major problems. As we have heard, some people hide their identity. Employment and other topics were mentioned. If someone is known to be a Traveller, he or she will be let go, excluded or discriminated against. Many young people on training courses cannot say that they are Travellers. According to a newspaper article, when people start talking in a canteen about Travellers, Travellers feel like they are being put on the spot and cannot address the comments. They feel helpless.

This reality erodes people's identity and eats away at their self-esteem and confidence. As children, people learn by internalising their external environments. Travellers internalise a certain shame about our identity. That can impact on our mental health and we struggle with it for the rest of our lives, which can lead to, for example, drug use and addiction.

Travellers have experienced extreme levels of racism and discrimination. Structural exclusion has been a key part of that. I will cite two studies, one from 2017 and, in 2000, the Citizen Traveller study. According to them, 36% of people said that they would avoid Travellers, 97% said that they would not accept Travellers as members of their families, 80% said they would not accept Travellers as a friend and 44% said they would not want Travellers as members of their communities. The majority of these people had had no direct contact with Travellers. If so, how were their attitudes, perceptions and biases shaped? One must ask about the role of the media in this.