Ms Joanna Corcoran:

Around the social enterprises, the social enterprises that we have run here in the Galway Traveller Movement, GTM, have been very successful. A large part of that is to do with our team. A really good part of our Bounce Back Recycling is that we take back an original role to do with the Traveller community, and that is recycling. As we say, we are the original recyclers.

One important part of the social enterprise start-ups is funding. There needs to be funding. It needs to be accessible. It needs to take in many different factors. Often the ideas around social enterprises come from the side. For example, Bounce Back Recycling came from an idea around recycling and around the greener energy and to reuse, and funding should be available for them. That is a huge part. Support there would be great.

Another part of the social enterprise is it brings in the bigger picture around public and private jobs provision. It helps to address the 80% of unemployment and the old myth that Travellers do not want to work. If the opportunity is there, that is brilliant. In the social enterprise that we have going at present, there was no worry about putting in your CV to apply for that job because your name on it would not lead to someone making a decision not to bring that person in because that is a McDonagh from a certain area, who is bound to be a Traveller, and we do not want to hire that person. Even if they get past the CV and get in to the interview - there is the fear of the discrimination that happens then, the racism, and not wanting to employ people. That went out the window with the social enterprise because this was a Traveller organisation. Now we are employing 16 Traveller men and it is brilliant. There is no fear. There is no discrimination. In gaining the jobs and continuing with that employment, there is no racism. There are no mental health issues on the back of having to hide your identity constantly. Gaining access to the employment and the keeping of the job is a big part of the social enterprise.

On the community employment, CE, question and comment, I am a CE supervisor but I am an ex-CE participant. The role of a CE scheme can be brilliant if it is there in a meaningful way. In some ways, the new way that the CE participation is going on is with a one-year contract. With the lack of experience that Travellers have had and with the amount of emotional turmoil there has been within the Traveller community, sometimes just to get people up to the point where they would feel comfortable even applying for a job can take the best part of a year or longer. To then get the skills needed to even put a CV together or to have the confidence to go in for an interview can take a bit of time. On top of that, there are limitations with the funding. For real meaningful training, the funding on a CE scheme is not practical if one is looking to go into meaningful employment, especially when one comes from a place where, as Ms Mullen stated earlier, one's educational experience has not been the best. For such people to get into mainstream employment, they will need a little bit extra. There used to be a free year social inclusion side to the CE and I think that needs to come back.

What Senator Joe O'Reilly said about the pig was a brilliant analogy. It has been said by members in my own organisation that we as a community are over-analysed. You can look into it and look into it, but the actions are not getting put in place. As the Senator said, you need to feed the pig. We need the commitment to reduce the unemployment. We need that target set. We need supports to be put in place and all efforts that need to be in there to support us to meet that target in a meaningful way. Do not just set up internships to get that unemployment rate from 80% down to 60%. If you are going to stick Travellers in jobs and just leave them in those jobs just to get them off the list, there is no point because they will not like it and they will not stay there. It will not work. For example, the State is the biggest national employer. If it stepped up and showed leadership using the positive action measures and employed Travellers in long-term meaningful roles that are not tokenistic, that we would not be seated there just to say that they have got a Traveller there, and they are stuck in the back end of nowhere in an office where they are not getting used for anything, there are Travellers out there who do not need the internship. They have the skills. They have the ability. They are raring and willing to go but what they do not have is the opportunity to get the job in the first place because they are not given the opportunity for the interview. They have the skills. They have everything but they just do not have the door open for them to come in. If that chance is given, the employment rate will change. People's opinions will have to change because it will not be able to be said that Travellers do not want to work. At present, Travellers cannot work because we just do not have the access to the employment and to the roles and that is what needs to change.