Ms Brigid Quilligan:

We had a similar experience as Ms Connors's, only in our case the young man was asked whether he was involved in Traveller conflict. This only happened two weeks ago. There is a perception about Travellers in general, but particularly young ones, that we are liars and thieves and cannot be believed. One internalises that.

Regarding Senator Warfield's comments, I am a great believer in the arts.

We want to be able to tell our story and we want our children to know the contribution our ancestors and forefathers made to Ireland and to realise the contribution we make today. Sometimes that is shoved under the carpet or thrown out like dirty water. However, Ireland's music and poetry would not be so rich without our people. I would like to see our language preserved. There is a great move in that regard and it will be of immense value to our young people. It will be a validation, an acknowledgement that we matter and that what we have to say is right. In certain places, when we were children we were slapped if we were speaking our language, and not by our parents. We were slapped and told we did not know what we were saying, but we were speaking our own language that came from our home. I am proud today to be able to hold onto that language, but many of the young people do not.

In terms of the arts, mental health and the culture, with horses we see more horse care and coppersmithing and we would like the committee's support for that. That can go hand-in-hand with the policy implementation. My final words today are that whatever is agreed in any committee must be implemented and monitored. There is no point in making recommendations, policy and legislation for the sake of it. They must be implemented, enforced and monitored. There must be outcomes. If I was in a job tomorrow morning and I was not producing outcomes in that job, I doubt that I would be in that position for long. All we are asking for Travellers is that they get the proper outcomes and are given a chance to get them.