Ms Brigid Quirke:

We were involved in piloting the ethnic identifier. It is a good question. Other countries in Europe have had State-imposed ethnic identifiers, but in our case it was Traveller groups lobbying the State to get an ethnic identifier. We need to be very clear that there needs to be good practice and codes of practice developed, and proper training. We have been doing work with different Departments; we have it in the national drug treatment service and in some of the hospitals. We go in and train people and a code of practice is developed. When we piloted the first question in Tallaght hospital people felt that nobody would engage but once we explained to Travellers that it is for their benefit and that the data are disaggregated and de-identified - and therefore anonymised - and once we explain that it is really to monitor where exactly the blocks are in access, participation and outcomes for services, we actually and surprisingly had 100% response. It was important. In the past people have asked Traveller-specific questions, which is much more likely to discriminate. If, however, one asks the question in the context of everybody having to identify their ethnicity - and it is important that it comes with a code of practice and clear guidelines on how it is used to inform policy - the data can be disaggregated and given back to front-line workers to encourage people. It is a bit like how the information is used in the census and how we now know how many are going to school and taking part in education, and Travellers can see the benefit of that. Women in east Limerick found that there were more than 100% of the Travellers there that they knew of, which meant that the need for public services was being underestimated. Initially in 2006 the census said there were 24,000. In the study we found 40,000. If one wants to plan appropriate service then the data are needed, once it is filled in with the correct protections and codes of practice.