Dr. Niall Muldoon:

I thank the Senator. I want to comment on a couple of points. He has hit the nail on the head in that this concerns the psychological health of the children as much as the physical health. I note from the last open meeting we had that a witness, Bridget Kelly from the National Traveller Women's Forum, said that infant Traveller children are 3.5 times more likely to die in the first year. When we see conditions like this, we can see why. We have been told that respiratory conditions are an issue right from the start so, again, they are being set up for long-term health issues.

When we talk about the psychological side, as a nation that is one of the top nations in Europe financially and is trying to be one of the leaders of the world in many ways, we try to teach our children to be confident, to be strong, to stand up for things and to learn about life in a safe and stepwise manner. However, all that these children are hearing all of the time is negative, abuse, racism and put-downs. Again, the accommodation where they start is important. Maslow's hierarchy of needs refers to the need for shelter and for a first safe, secure place. If people do not have that, they do not feel safe, they do not feel secure, they do not feel that is where they can retreat and be comfortable, safe and warm. Everything else falls apart from there, and it becomes much more difficult to thrive and survive in the way that we want our children to do. I agree that that really is a starting point. If we can get safe, strong, affordable accommodation for this population, as is their right, then we would change enormously their projection into the future and, as was said, the impact on education and employment.

The fire risk is clear. Unfortunately, in my first year as Ombudsman for Children, I attended one of the wakes for the children in Carrickmines. It was horrific. To think that could still possibly happen anywhere in the country, after all the work that has been put into it, is scary. Hopefully, it will never happen again, but we seem to be creating conditions that could allow that to happen.

Is this typical? One of the things we can do in our office is to carry out systemic investigations, for example, if one case leads to something that might change systems. In this situation, we felt it was better to do a strong job on an individual authority and take the lessons from there. The committee will have seen already the feedback to this report, and it probably struck us even more than we expected. There are probably examples in every local authority area and there are various different elements. Whether it is the overcrowding, the hygiene or the poor administration of housing applications, it is probably happening all over the country. As to whether it is typical, it is certainly not an outlier, I would say, from what I can understand and the feedback I have got from different organisations. That said, this is why we want to use this investigation as an opportunity to change, and as a starting point for local authorities. We worked very hard with that local authority to say that we are not trying to hammer it but that we are trying to find a way to make things different and to change things. That is why we will stay engaged over the next six to 12 months, and longer if necessary.

I will pass over to Ms Ward to talk about how the population increased from ten bays to 40, and also about the outside staff as well.