Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in to help us with this important work that we are doing. I will follow on from Senator Ruane because it was something I was thinking about as well as regards mainstreaming cultural awareness training. Dr. Favier mentioned in her presentation that it should be mainstreamed, which means it is not at the minute. Perhaps we should think about making interdepartmental and cross-agency training available to everybody who encounters the Traveller community in their walk of life, whether they are teachers, members of An Garda Síochána, doctors or whatever. That might help to address that issue so that people would understand if, for instance, someone turns up for one meeting but does not appear again afterwards. Would that kind of all-encompassing approach work?

Ms O'Donoghue referred to people missing appointments and losing important documents because their addresses are not fixed. The housing issue is very complex, but if that could be sorted out, that would get to the root of it. Everything else will flow if we can sort out the housing issue. There seems to be a lot of money available for housing but in identifying need, has a proper analysis been conducted on the type of housing that is required? I know Travellers who are settled. They are in a house and they are very happy there. I know other Travellers who are part of a group housing scheme, for example, and who like to move in the summer or whenever. There are others for whom movement is what it is all about and they cannot think of staying in one place. How do we identify how much housing is needed? Has any work been done on that? In respect of architects and people who design accommodation, has an analysis been conducted on whether there should be training for them as well? I am thinking of when they are required to design group housing and how they would do that in order that it would fit into the landscape and so on. Is that being done or should it be done?

On the HSE, it is great to hear the kind of connections it is making with people and that much of what the executive is doing is informed by consultation. I also acknowledge the frustration of the witnesses that everybody is not aware of the type of information they need to deal effectively with members of the Travelling community. How could that be improved within the HSE or do the witnesses see that deficiency in other organisations?