Mr. Martin Collins:

I also endorse the comments made by RoseMarie Maughan at the beginning of the session acknowledging that this is a truly historic moment to see a member of our own community chairing such a committee.

It will be an even greater day when, like Senator Flynn, we see other Travellers chairing standing committees of the Oireachtas. I hope that day will not be too far into the future.

When opening this session, the Chairperson used the term "witness". It is an appropriate term in this context because the three national organisations are again today bearing witness to the ongoing systemic failure of this State to meet the accommodation needs of Travellers. Ms Kelly and Ms Maughan very eloquently articulated some of the very shocking statistics that are a manifestation of that failure. There has been an increase in the number of Travellers becoming homeless and an increase in the number of Travellers living in overcrowded conditions on sites and group housing schemes, which bring many problems in terms of fire hazards and tension among families.

The unspent budget has been already alluded to. Since 2017, €69 million has been unspent on Traveller accommodation, which is shocking. The Traveller budget in 2000 was €135 million. In 2017, it was €20 million. Despite that the budget has been reduced, it is still not being fully utilised or drawn down by the local authorities to meet the basic human rights of many Traveller families throughout the State. The implications of this are severe in terms of access to education, employment, healthcare and mental health well-being. These are manifestations of people being forced to live in cramped, overcrowded conditions and not having access to basic services such as electricity, water, sanitation or refuse collection. As already alluded to, this was amplified in the context of Covid-19 when many Travellers could not comply with the basic public health guidelines in terms of social distancing and handwashing. If that does not constitute a humanitarian crisis, I do not know what does. We have to be honest and name it a humanitarian crisis.

The Irish State has been consistently in breach of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, which places a legal obligation on local authorities to undertake an accommodation needs assessment and to develop TAPs on that basis. International human rights bodies have found Ireland to be in breach of its obligations in terms of the provision of Traveller accommodation. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and many others have found Ireland to be in breach of its international human rights obligations, and this continues to be the case.

In terms of what needs to happen, the problems have been well rehearsed and well documented by all of the Traveller organisations and well articulated today by all of the witnesses. We have also come up with solutions,such as, for example, the call for a moratorium on evictions. It is immoral that local authorities continue to evict Travellers when those same local authorities have failed to implement their Traveller accommodation programmes and failed to draw down the budget available in that regard from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. A moratorium on evictions is vital. This has been called for by other international human rights organisations. We also need a national independent agency whose remit is to drive forward Traveller policy on a whole range of fronts.

It is clear to all of us that the local authority system structure is inherently unable and incapable of providing Travellers with their basic accommodation needs. Traveller accommodation is too heavily politicised at local authority level. Many public representatives are, unfortunately, objecting to Traveller accommodation, playing the race card. We see that all too frequently. We know that many local authorities are not brave enough even to propose building Traveller accommodation. Therefore, the evidence points in one direction, that is, this power needs to be taken away from the local authorities. They have failed miserably. We need a new approach and a new structure and a depoliticising of these issues such that we can get on and do the job that needs to be done. In that regard, I am reminded of a quote from Jean-Claude Juncker, a former President of the European Commission, when addressing a conference a number of years ago on Roma and Traveller issues. He said, "We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it." That is the core issue, that is, the issue of Traveller accommodation is too heavily politicised. There is a strong evidence base and rationale for Traveller accommodation to be taken out of the hands of local authorities.

I am not sure if members of the committee are aware that today is International Children's Day. I mention it in light of the recent report of the Office of the Ombudsman for Children in regard to Spring Lane, which highlighted the appalling and deplorable conditions in which families have been forced to live for many years. Let there be no mistake about it, as stated by my colleagues, that is not an isolated incident. What is happening at Spring Lane is prevalent throughout the country. In almost every county in Ireland there are families living in similar conditions. It is shameful and shocking. As a Traveller man, I do not become desensitised to it. It is appalling and shocking. It is shameful and an indictment on society that we allow this situation to continue. I need to be frank. The State and all of its institutions by their inaction have been complicit in allowing this situation to prevail. I call on the policymakers, the decisionmakers and legislators to work with the Traveller organisations to develop a new approach to an old problem. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We have been trying the same approach for more than 30 years with the same result, that is, Travellers being let down.