Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join the Chairperson in thanking our speakers. Collectively, their contributions were very interesting and they were specific and focused in their recommendations, which is great. We cannot continue stating the issues in a broad philosophical sense. We must have a solution-based approach. That was very apparent in all their contributions and that is welcome.

I wish to raise a few issues. I would like the speakers to elaborate on what exactly they mean by social enterprise opportunities. I have a broad sense of what they mean but I am not specifically sure about it. Will any of the speakers comment on how much or how little the current community employment schemes are being used in a positively discriminatory way to assist to provide a start for some Travellers to work on them?

While they are not ideal for Travellers, other ethnic groups or the settled community, they have been empowering. I have real evidence from people I know for whom this has been transformative and has had a huge impact on their lives.

The Chairman and the clerk to the committee, Leo Bollins, should be looking at how we can get these recommendations implemented. I know the committee is not part of the Executive or an implementer of Government policy. However, we are, at the same time, an important committee. We should look for the Departments to come before the committee to discuss these recommendations.

Internships in the public sector are vital. We had a discussion on this before but we need to set out specifically the numbers and the Departments, and the where, what and how. The Chairman and the clerk should see to a programme that brings in the relevant people to get answers from them. We have had presentations on Travellers in public sector jobs but we need action on that to see the actual quotas and numbers.

The Chairman will recall that in the Seanad recently I raised the issue of publicly funded grant schemes, such as sports capital grants, and their linkages to Northern Ireland for the sake of an all-Ireland peaceful situation. Public representatives are aware of State supports given to big employers. We process them and bring them to the local enterprise offices. The grants, along with preferential loans, are generous and widespread. There should be a link there to Traveller employment. One cannot set crazy targets but there should be targets. That is something we should specifically pursue.

I liked the point about liaison workers. This worked fairly well when I was a Deputy in the Cavan-Monaghan constituency. I am still processing this. In the disability sector, this has worked pretty well with a number of enterprises where the disability placement persons supported them. The liaison workers are vital and I would like to see that more.

A peer-led service would be good too. Unfortunately, there are not many Traveller peers in the workplace. Will the witnesses comment on how that might work?

Ms Mullen cited several Government initiatives which are ending now. Is there positive discrimination towards Travellers in those programmes? If there is not, is it too late and has the horse left the stable? The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, announced a national apprenticeship programme recently. It is exciting that it gets over the point that one must be academically orientated to end up with high-level qualifications. To what degree is there any positive discrimination built in for Travellers?

I was in favour of gender quotas in the political sphere, although some women objected to them on the grounds of meritocracy. I favoured them because they were needed to break the glass ceiling. They were implemented and we have a 40% quota now. We have to break the glass ceiling for Travellers by similar methods such as quotas, positive discrimination, legislation and grants tied into this. The glass ceiling is so high that it will take targeted action. We should refrain - I am as bad as the next one for this - from stating the problem. We should start actually getting some results. That is why I recommend that the Chairman and the clerk to the committee focus some meetings on when will these things happen.

An agricultural expression in the part of the country from where I come says one cannot spend all the time weighing the pig, one must spend time feeding it. That basically means one must act on things, not just state the problem. We can all talk about road safety but if one does not put road safety measures in place, nothing happens. The same principle applies here. We know the problem and its roots. What we need now is to see if these good recommendations could actually be implemented.