Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Unfortunately Senator Moynihan had to go to another meeting and sends her apologies. It has been difficult for me as a member of the Traveller community to chair some of the meetings of this committee because of how sometimes our language is not always appropriate or how we speak about "them" and "us", the normal community and the Traveller community. We see it often and it is no different here in the Houses of the Oireachtas. Ms Maughan is right that there is not 100% of the necessary political will but there has been a shift in the political way of thinking and engaging with members of the Traveller community.

Regarding the suggestion that Travellers do not vote, a majority of the Traveller community vote and have voted for many years. It is up to local authorities to go into halting sites to engage with members of the Traveller community.

I hope with all my heart that it does so, as a 31-year-old woman who has worked since the age of 18 years and who has sat on local consultative committees where local authorities speak about us and say we are the problem in society. We are not the problem. We are not looking for special treatment; we are looking for basic human rights.

People in the community are sick of audits being done on sites. Carrickmines is, unfortunately, being used as an excuse for more evictions, for saying caravans have to be 6 m apart and for other nonsense that stops Travellers being able to live with our families and on halting sites. Since Carrickmines, more barriers have been put up around Traveller accommodation. Nothing has got better.

I remember that day in 2015. I thought it had taken ten people to die and this might change stuff for the Traveller community around accommodation. Unfortunately, it has not. At the report last week I cried, as a young woman who grew up in Labre Park. Still today, there is no park for the children to play in or proper facilities for children there. As a woman who grew up in those conditions and now has my own children, I do not want that for Traveller children. The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Deputy O’Gorman, the State and the local authorities have a responsibility.

We are nowhere near reaching the sustainable development goals at a European level. Recently, there was an outbreak of hepatitis A. We do not see hepatitis A in Ireland today but it is acceptable to see it in the Traveller community and among Traveller children on halting sites. As a Traveller woman who fought hard to get in here, I hope with all my heart that Ms Maria Joyce, Mr. Collins, Ms Maughan, Mr. Bernard Joyce and other representatives of our community will not be sitting here in a few years blue in the face having these discussions again.

There is policy after policy, legislation after legislation and no implementation. We have the answers. Travellers came up with the answers. All we are looking for is implementation. I know people on this committee and I have worked closely with them. I hope the committee will achieve these actions for our community as a whole so we do not see any more tragedies like Carrickmines or horrible but welcome reports from the Government, the State and local authorities. It may be sexy to vote for the councillor who does not like Travellers and says they will push out the Travellers. It is up to us to hold councillors to account and say we do not accept racism in Ireland today. Nothing about us without us. Travellers are Ireland’s own and we have always belonged in Ireland.

Notwithstanding the Proclamation, young children in Ireland are still growing up in dire circumstances and we are not treating Traveller children as equal. It seems that all the children of our nation should be treated equally, but not Traveller children. We need to look at that. As a committee, we have a responsibility. I know members of this committee are fully committed to making sure we have action this time around. Let us not recreate the wheel. Those 32 recommendations are already there. The work has already been done. The easy part should be implementation, drawing down the money and making sure people will not have to put up with horrible living conditions and be blamed for it.

I am conscious that I am the Chairperson of the committee and I do not want to go on and on, but all that needs to be done is implementation. The work is already done.

I see Senator Joe O’Reilly has come in. If he would like to make a comment, he is welcome to do so. Then the witnesses are welcome to come in with a final point.