Ms Tracey Reilly:

A few of our requirements and our views are very similar to Mr. Joyce's, to be honest. When it comes to role models I am hoping that Travellers will look at the likes of Senator Eileen Flynn, me and other people who have come through it. It comes with personal challenges and perhaps you can think of it being a cultural thing, with Traveller women or men leaving school early because of marriage, for example, being in the culture. This can be true at times but also not true. I left school at a very young age due to isolation and marginalisation. I was put into a special class for additional supports that I actually did not need. I was missing out on valuable subjects. It is about trying to empower people to put them back into education and to get them to see the value of education. With all my ability I will do that going forward if I can. We still cannot forget the experiences those young people have been through within the education system. Within school I was told "What would you come back for? It is not as if you are going to do well." That left me with very low confidence and I never went back. To be honest, I was never looked for to come back into school or anything like that. All of those experiences have a cost and I am sure that many other Travellers can see themselves reflected in them too. It is hard to get around that and to encourage them to go back into education. There is still a lot of high hope of that, perhaps by linking through organisations that have links to the young people out on the ground. It can happen. It happened to me. I was very much empowered and encouraged by courses that I did with Pavee Point, which led me onto the pathway into the National University of Ireland at Maynooth. It is definitely possible. We cannot forget, however, what has happened in the past.