Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Maughan, Ms Kelly and Mr. Collins for their contributions. I have faced many times a lot of the issues Mr. Collins mentioned, such as dealing with councillors and councils in respect of their attitude and their delivery. Local authorities that do not deliver should be penalised and there should be someone to oversee them. Taking this out of the hands of the local authorities could be a bad step, but we could have someone overseeing the local authorities and persistently hounding them to do the right thing and to live up to their budgets. Time out of number we have seen budgets falling behind and not being used, Traveller accommodation getting worse and the number of people looking for accommodation increasing significantly. In Dublin North-West the number of people in the Traveller community looking for accommodation is huge. There is no way anyone should be thinking of evictions in this climate for starters. There should not be evictions, full stop. They should be the very last resort, whether in the settled community or in the Traveller community. In this climate, however, there is no way they should be allowed.

As for depoliticising the issues faced by the Traveller community, we need to politicise people. We need to get to people with attitudes against either Travellers or other races. We need to change that mindset. We have to get at these politicians and get them to understand that this is totally and utterly unacceptable. We watch football matches now and see people kneeling down over racism. We should have a similar attitude towards the Traveller community and any other community that is being treated in a different way or abused in any way. It has to be unacceptable and we need to push the agenda that it is not acceptable and never will be.

For years I have been dealing with Traveller families and I have, I hope, a very good relationship with the vast majority. On Ratoath Road there is the Gavan family: 15 people and no running water. They are getting water brought in in tanks. There is no other supply. There are other issues there. In fairness to Celine Burke, she has been delivering water there for the past month or so but the family have no running water. This goes back to what Ms Maughan said about running water. It is essential. There are animals, families, men, women and children on these sites. Nearly every person on that site got Covid, yet I am after lobbying every person I can think of, including the Minister, to try to get running water in there.

That shows the way people are being treated. It is unacceptable. It has to stop. We must speak out, as people, and make our views known that we do not accept it. I do not stand in the company of anyone who talks racism. I tell them straight that I have no time for it. The same goes for anyone who runs down any other community. I will not stand for it. That is the way we should be. We should be vocal in showing our opposition to the attitude of many people. I apologise for taking so long.