Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

Many areas have been covered. I attended the previous meeting on the St. Stephen's Green Trust report. As was said at that meeting, the travelling community is really over-analysed. Travellers feel like a specimen at this stage with the amount of poking and reports and everything that has been done. It has come to a point where we need to start trying to do something. This report feeds into what the committee should be recommending. I agree with all the points made by the previous contributors.

We know there is positive discrimination as regards people with disability based on the 2014 legislation - in the public sector it may even have been in before that. My office is in Agriculture House, and I see people who are disabled working productively and well. It is not so obvious in the private sector, but it is certainly seen in the public sector. Should local authorities and Departments have quotas for members of the travelling community? People in this generation are trying to get jobs and future generations need to see other members of their community in work to encourage them to stay in school for education to get to where those people are. That shows the importance of our report.

I want to ask a bit more about the Traveller liaison workers. It was said that this would be done through the Department of Social Protection. How many Traveller liaison workers are there at the moment? How many are needed? Mr. Crowley made the point about needing a national spread of liaison workers. It is key to have them work in a geographical area, talking to retailers and small enterprises about Traveller employment and then trying to match skills with those employers. It needs to be micromanaged at the ground level to be able to bring people from the travelling community into the workplace and address all the points that have been made.

Ms Corcoran spoke about discrimination. Each employment should have workplace human rights discussions and debates from the point of view of everybody who goes into the workplace, irrespective of gender, disability, membership of the Traveller or Roma community or whatever.

I would like to hear more about how the liaison officers need to be spread out because I believe they could be crucial in the recommendations we make.