Ms Maria Joyce:

That is very telling in itself. In one short generation, we have gone from there being no homeless Travellers because of the way of life and the culture to greater numbers of children in homelessness being Traveller children. There is also the wholly substandard quality of Traveller accommodation, particularly Traveller-specific accommodation. There are low levels of provision and what is there is wholly substandard and unsafe because of overcrowding. The numbers of Travellers living in unauthorised accommodation, without the most basic of services, is significant and growing. All those factors combined makes it amazing that our children survive and come through an education system in anyway half intact. That is testament to the strength of the culture and way of life but it does not take away from education and the State's responsibility towards and its failings of Traveller children. When the committee looks at accommodation after Christmas, it could consider site visits to some of those accommodations. That would be very useful and a big eye opener to anyone who has not been in those spaces.

Deputy Ó Cuív asked if reduced timetables being a lazy way out for schools. The only answer to that is "Yes". He asked about additional supports. One response by an educator to the rationale for using reduced timetables in a school was that the child did need additional supports but they did nothing to make that happen, they just put a reduced timetable in place. There is no way that child will stay in the education system. They and many others will fall through the cracks. The history of Traveller children in this State, even those within the system in schools, has been of exclusion. Extra resources should follow children but it cannot be done in the same way as has been the case in the past. Extra resources, when attached to children not just on need but on identity, ensured segregated provision for Traveller children and sustained itself until very recently.

As somebody who has come through what were then called special classes for Travellers, I can tell the committee that it does not meet the needs of Traveller children. Yes, resources should follow the child where there is need, but there needs to be a real way of looking how that happens because otherwise it gets soaked into the schools.

Between 2008 and 2013, Traveller-specific supports were cut by 86.6%. Those supports were in place to address the big gap between the educational attainment rates for Traveller children and the outcomes for settled children. That has been rowed back on and we no longer have a 100% transfer from primary to post-primary education. Given that it is a legal requirement in this country to be in school until 16, the State in itself is violating those rights.

In terms of ethnicity, it has already been done to some extent but there has been little progression. It is not about needing to come up with a whole new strategy or way of doing things. It is about implementing the policies and strategies that already exist across the board for Travellers in terms of health, accommodation and education. The State's newest policy, the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, makes a whole range of recommendations across all of those areas. The Departments and agencies of this State that are responsible for those areas need to implement those recommendations. Again, it is implementation, implementation, implementation.

On the final point about prejudice and racism against Travellers, that seems to be the greatest and most acceptable. Research undertaken not just by Travellers but by wider bodies demonstrates that it is one of the most acceptable forms of racism and is not being challenged. There is no leadership approach in this country, from a top down perspective, in relation to racism against Travellers. We have seen again the most recent tweets about Travellers that have come out from people who want to fill the political space, and they are incredibly racist. That has followed on from many examples over the years.