Ms Shirley Comerford:

I thank the committee for inviting me and my colleagues here today to discuss our work in this area. I am the CEO of PAS. I am joined by Ms Aoife Lyons, head of assessment services, and Ms Cathriona Tumelty, our equality, diversity and inclusion partner. It is an opportune time to talk about the recruitment of the Traveller community, given the recent launch of our first equality, diversity and inclusion strategy, but also in light of last week’s Travellers in the Mainstream Labour Market report, which was launched by the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O’Brien, on behalf of St. Stephen's Green Trust. The report outlined the significant employment gap between Travellers and non-Travellers. I welcome this opportunity to hear the insights of this committee into these matters and for our organisation to demonstrate and establish our intention to address it, both in our work to date and our future plans.

As outlined in the submission paper, PAS is the recruiter for client organisations in the civil and public service. We source candidates for roles in the Civil Service, local authorities, An Garda Síochána-----