Mr. Patrick Nevin:

We do not have to go very far up the road to look at the discussions which led to the Good Friday Agreement. Parity of esteem, recognition of cultural difference, recognition of dual identity, and recognition of place in society are all set out in that document. That has never happened for Travellers.

Ms Catherine Joyce made a point about the Sámi people. Legislation specifically targeting Travellers was introduced within a seven-year period, namely, the Control of Horses Act 1996, the Casual Trading Act 1995, and the trespass legislation in 2002. That legislation was specifically targeted at Travellers. No other state in western Europe has introduced such a number of targeted Acts since Nazi Germany in the 1930s. People will say I am being melodramatic, but those three Acts culturally and economically target a people.

Ms Maria Joyce noted that we went from a nomadic people to a homeless people in a short period of time. We were once self-sustainable and self-sufficient. When I say we need an open and honest discourse, I mean that it has to come from the State and the powers that be. They are the dominant norm and the single story or narrative. The State needs to initiate that discourse and we need to look at what happened with other communities and how they changed the conversations. We do not have to go very far to see an example. The difference is that there are more of the guys up North than there are Travellers on the island of Ireland, and so they had much more power to play with. That is the reason they have parity of esteem. That is what I am talking about.