Ms Maria Joyce:

The focus has to shift. The onus can no longer be on Travellers when it comes to the lack of equality of outcomes in education. The system has to look at itself. It has to come from that perspective and not what has to change from a Traveller perspective. It has to focus on the education system and not on Travellers. It must also look at critical points of transfer, which has already been spoken about. It has to look at the points of transfer, including from early years to primary. It is more difficult from primary to second level, and certainly, from second to third level. So many times, we have put forward recommendations for what is needed. The solutions are known and the overriding issue is the absolute lack of implementation. There are a couple of members of this committee who were sitting on the Joint Committee on Education and Skills in 2019 when it looked at inequalities for Travellers in education and at reduced timetables. We are no further on in respect of any of those issues. None of the recommendations that committee made in two reports have been progressed any further. That is the really challenging bit. We are not seeing implementation and we are not seeing the focus shifting that the system has to change, not Travellers, to make the system work.