Ms Kathleen Sherlock:

I will just come back to something that Mr. O'Leary said. Many of the issues that we see developing and which Travellers must deal with, including addiction, suicide and depression, are by-products of a rejection by society. Many of those will start to fall away when we see people being treated a little better and having opportunities around employment.

One of our colleagues, who sits on our council, works in the Prison Service. The number of people in prison, not just Travellers, who are basically illiterate is unbelievable. Would these people have taken the direction they took and ended up in the destination point they are at if the system had started to support them at a much earlier age? For the vast majority of them the answer is probably "No".

This comes back to how we value people in society. Do we value Travellers and people from working class and disadvantaged areas in the same way as we value people from other sections of society? The reality is, and the evidence shows, that we do not. Some people are set up for success while others are set up for failure. We need to level it out and understand that there are long-term consequences. If we fail children at a very young age, many of them will become a burden on society whereas, with the right supports, they could be an asset to society. Each and every one of us has skills, abilities and talents and we should have the opportunity to contribute them.