Mr. Patrick Nevin:

I will be brief because almost everything has been said already. Little more than 50 or 60 years ago, we were a self-sustaining, self-sufficient people who had a purpose and co-existed. Within the space of 50 years, we have become, and are commonly accused of being, a parasitic people on the settled, sedentary system. Some 50 or 60 years ago we were a sustainable, self-sufficient people with our own language, culture and history. That has all changed in a short period, due to the monocultural mindset that came from the formation of this State in 1922. It is a monoculture which was based on extreme nationalistic ideology. I emphasise that because it is important. We cannot underestimate the acceptable and open racism and discrimination that has been propagated against Travellers from the top down. An episode occurred just yesterday which I will not go into, but it is there. It comes from extremely educated people within official Ireland. It is the feeding ground for the right-wing racism that we are now seeing with new communities. The Irish State and those in positions of power within it must accept that they created that culture and othered Travellers. They set about it. All the research showing that is there, from both Traveller organisations and other institutions. The only way forward is for the State to take ownership of that, acknowledge it, and make reparations. "Reparation" comes from the word "repair", meaning "to mend what was broken", which is what they have done.