Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank everybody for their insightful contributions, though they were also very depressing in some ways, in that 80% of Travellers are unemployed. There is obviously a reason for that. Systematic discrimination happens daily and that is extremely difficult for the Traveller community to take. As we have said each week, this has been internalised and can cause all sorts of difficulties socially and civically. I have a question for Ms Quilligan about affirmative action. I know there is a history of this in the United States. I think it was called positive discrimination. I presume that is not the terminology. I think affirmative action was relatively positive in the United States. Black people were discriminated against civically and this was a basis for them to access employment. Once they accessed employment, they then opened up other pathways. Is there a history of affirmative action in this country? I know there is for people with disabilities. Is there a history relating to the Traveller community? What would pathways look like, especially in the public sector? I think there are 300,000 people working in the public sector. That would be another pathway. What would it look like for the private sector, which I know is slightly more problematic? If 80% of the Traveller community are unemployed, an extraordinary statistic, what does the pathway look like and how long could it take to make an impact?