Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh and appreciate him doing that. I thank Mr. Ryan for attending. His facial expression, like mine, said it all as Senator Mullen spoke. I felt a little embarrassed for the Senator and had to turn off my webcam as I was listening to some of his inappropriate comments. I apologise for them.

I am a member of the Traveller community. I have not heard Travellers mentioned once in this discussion or in our guests' submissions, although they mentioned racism and discrimination. The same is true of the Muslim community and Muslim women who have to wear a hijab. Last year and early this year, in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, we heard from many people. A young woman from Kildare spoke about being bullied at school and about many young Black students being bullied at school. Mr. Ryan spoke about how the curriculum system needs to speak to communities and individuals, with the inclusion of people who look like them.

We are still under-represented professionally. There are not enough Black, Traveller or trans teachers in the education system. How can the curriculum system be made more inclusive to educate students about racism and discrimination? At present, I am waiting for the Minister, Deputy Foley, to progress a Bill that has already been debated, although it does not seem as if that will happen any time soon. It is called the Traveller History and Education Cultural Bill 2018. It is very important for members of the Traveller community that that be included in the curriculum system. It is not Travellers who need to be educated about Travellers, however, but rather students from the general population. I am interested in hearing all our guests' opinions on how the curriculum system can be made more inclusive and how we should educate both teachers and students about people from ethnic minority groups. Trans people are a big part of that. Should there be a module on racial discrimination and fairness within the school system?

Finally, we have not touched on the yellow flag programme, which is delivered by the Irish Traveller Movement. It is an inclusive flag and every school should fly it.

I thank all our guests for their attendance and Deputy Ó Cathasaigh for allowing me to contribute before him.