Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 24 September 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee On Key Issues Affecting The Traveller Community

Traveller Mental Health: Discussion

Mr. Patrick Reilly:

It is a very good question and one that follows on from the points I made earlier. The focus of today's meeting is on health and mental health. In the Department of Health, for example, there is no one driving the issue of Traveller health. It has been given to others. We have heard back that those who get the issue of Traveller health to deal with are unlucky. That is the way it is viewed. We need a driver waving the Traveller hat, so to speak. We need a Traveller to implement the issues around mental health. If we do not get that, it will fall to someone else and dissolve away. We want people in the Department of Health to drive and implement policy on Traveller health. The only way forward is to have a consistent driver to implement that.

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