Mr. James O'Leary:

I thank the committee for having us here. Involve provides youth work services to young Travellers and publishes the Travellers' Voice magazine under the management of Mr. Michael Power. We sit on the Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy group, which is known as NTRIS. I had the privilege of chairing the employment subgroup of NTRIS. I have spent my entire professional career working with the Traveller community. My background is in this line of work. As a professional, I suggest that the issue of Traveller unemployment can be addressed and resolved with the right strategic approach. My professional belief is that if we address the question of employment, other challenging issues, including education, accommodation, health and racism, will resolve themselves more easily. We need to be under no illusion that in addressing the issue of Traveller unemployment, there needs to be targeted State investment in strategic programmes and projects. These programmes and projects need to go the extra mile to achieve the desired outcomes. They need to be led by a Traveller organisation. Having said that, the investment will be cost neutral. As progress is made in reducing the 80% unemployment figure, there will be payback for the State.

I suggest that we take serious note of the fact that 20% of Travellers who are eligible for the labour market are employed against all odds. This dispels the nonsensical myth that Travellers want to be on social welfare. Travellers are employed in roles such as landscape gardeners, labourers, security personnel, general practitioners and barristers. I will not go through every line of my prepared statement because I would be covering some of the stuff that has already been mentioned by other speakers.

I would like to mention a case study. Two Traveller men in their mid-20s applied to a local pharmaceutical company for employment. They both had qualifications from a third level institution to help them to get an interview. They submitted their CVs and letters of application with support from their third level tutor, but they received no further communication from the company. Their tutor advised them to reapply using their Irish language names and the home addresses of the tutor and a colleague. Both of them were interviewed and subsequently employed. When their probationary period was completed after six months, the tutor made contact with the head of recruitment in the company to discuss what had happened. The head of human resources acknowledged that when the CVs were originally submitted, he did not review them after he saw their names and address. He acknowledged that both men, who are still employed by the company today, are excellent employees. This is an example of the practical experiences of Travellers.

I would like to speak about access to employment services and the adequacy of funding for these services. In recent years, there have been well-funded initiatives to help unemployed people to return to work, primarily via Seetec, Turas Nua, the social inclusion and community activation programme, and previously the local employment services. In general, these initiatives have had very limited success with the Traveller community. Anecdotally, our information suggests that most employment liaison people do not believe that Travellers will be employed. They are beaten from the gate. It should be taken into account that mainstream services have failed the Traveller community. As a community, Travellers do not have great faith in such services and their engagement can be sporadic. As employment services are generally centre-based, they do not engage in outreach work with communities. The initial approach of any employment and enterprise agency with the Traveller community needs to begin with where Travellers can be found in their communities and must involve collaboration with local Traveller community development groups. That is the starting point. Involve is currently engaged in a number of pilot employment projects in Ballina, Longford and Tullamore.

We are also researching different working approaches over the last 20 years to address long-term unemployment. We have been to the UK and looked at initiatives in London and Manchester. We will compile a report with more detailed recommendations on our findings from this work in early 2020.

Among the barriers and challenges to gaining employment identified by young Traveller and Roma people were that they had little or no experience of working and the employers were looking for experienced workers. They also referred to low levels of education and skills; employers who would not give them a chance; low pay for young people; not knowing what work they wanted to do; not liking having a boss; and wanting work to be practical and not to involve much paperwork. That was the young people's feedback around employment. The barriers identified in the recent report, What Next for Traveller Employment?, referred to inadequate public services, discrimination, education not being viewed as the best route to income generation, and the pragmatic issue that Traveller culture is not taken into account.

On the recommendations, as the chairman of the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy employment subgroup, I believe the strategy needs to be supported by a small fund to help deliver on its work, and representation from trade unions and employers also needs to be achieved. All Government Departments and public bodies identified in the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy's employment actions must actively engage and deliver on their remit. The actions are listed out and it is the responsibility of Departments to step up to the mark on them. We also need champions in the public service and Civil Service and positive affirmative actions similar to the disabilities champion in the Public Appointments Service.

There is a requirement for an internship traineeship apprenticeship model of recruitment via the Public Appointments Service for all Departments, with set targets for Traveller recruitment and support in the early stages of employment. There are many individual examples of positive affirmation actions that should be replicated. There were champions at senior level in all cases. One such case that is always cited is that of the late Joe Horan and the changes he made on South Dublin County Council. Interestingly, Tusla has realised that it needs to have Travellers trained as social workers in order to provide foster care supports. Tusla now has an initiative in place to support young Travellers going through third level education in that regard. It is very practical and makes sense. Again, it is an example of somebody taking action.

There is also a requirement for a targeted fund to be established and tendered for, with a clear outcome of reducing Traveller unemployment, initially by 50% over the next six years. This would be an increase from 2,112 employed to 5,326 employed. Pilot programmes could initially be established, as outlined in a proposal submitted under the Dormant Accounts Fund scheme and which is part of our larger submission to the committee.

Finally, we suggest that quotas be put in place for Traveller employment. Government Departments, public bodies, agencies and NGOs funded by the State should have quotas for employing Travellers.