Ms Jeanne McDonagh:

Open Doors has a blended approach to training. I am not saying that is better or worse, but we like to think it mimics real society a little better. We have migrants working with people with disabilities, disadvantaged youth and so on.

I take the Deputy's point on a specific support with nothing else in place to assist the Traveller community in a targeted way. I very much believe in all boats rising. When one supports different members in society, it is an equitable approach and everyone benefits. Once the supports are in place, that is the key thing. Once everyone benefits, that is a good and holy thing. It is obviously an issue that a Traveller education service has gone from the area. Something certainly needs to be done on that basis.

On the graduate network, I must hold my hand up and admit I only have surface knowledge. One of the key starters of it is Gavin Hennessy, who works in the diversity and inclusion section of Irish Life's HR department. It is a clever idea because it creates role models and peer support. That feeds into mentoring because if one cannot see it, one cannot be it. One needs to have people in place to whom one can aspire and talk, as well as learn from. With our mentoring, we have had so many successes just by dint of the fact that someone with experience is willing to share their time, network and ideas, as well as bringing someone along from a place where they have none of those things to a place where they have confidence. That is the commonality between all the groups we deal with, namely, a lack of confidence. Those sorts of networks and mentoring give a degree of confidence and help people move along.

We are looking at recruitment and are having discussions with the national recruitment agencies about how to get cultural training into the recruitment area. This would mean people would have some knowledge of difference. It is easy to mirror oneself, especially in recruitment. If a recruiter sees someone who looks like them, talks like them and went to the same school, the natural inclination is to gravitate towards them. We need to get recruiters to see difference because they are the gatekeepers. They work with companies and companies are guided by them. They can sieve out CVs before they even get to the employer, who may be very inclusive. The recruiter is working on a certain basis and may feel that only certain candidates can be put forward. That is a piece of work to be done. We started it in a small way but it needs a lot of work to get recruiters to think in a far more inclusive and diverse way. We need them to put forward candidates who might not necessarily tick every single box but who will bring with them diversity of thought, creativity, lateral thinking and problem-solving, all of which are assets to any workplace.