Ms Maria Joyce:

I want to add a point on education and accommodation. Chronic overcrowded living conditions and substandard accommodation are a result of the persistent failure of local authorities over the past 20 or 30 years to deliver Traveller accommodation at local level. That has had a direct impact on the current chronic overcrowding and substandard accommodation Travellers have to live in. That, in turn, had a direct impact on those children who had the technology and Wi-Fi to enable them to try to study at home. We recognise that far fewer had that available to them than should have been the case.

Having a space to be able to study and focus on education was a significant barrier to being able to engage in online learning. We will have to learn to live with Covid and the different crises that will emerge. We will be talking about these issues again in another five or ten years if the combination of the delivery of accommodation and education, as well as the lessons learned from Covid, are not addressed.

Travellers were one of the groups most disproportionately impacted by Covid in terms of contracting it and living in accommodation types where the spread of it occurred more easily than in other areas. Children were trying to home school in overcrowded conditions alongside parents and siblings who had Covid. That is the lived reality. Learning from Covid and the disproportionate impact it has had on Travellers has to inform the lessons learned.

I refer to the Senator's comments on racism. It is the fundamental barrier when it comes to access to equality of participation in and outcomes from education with regard to Travellers. There is peer-led racism but there is also systematic racism, the racism experienced by Traveller children from teachers and bias. Solutions have been put forward.

The visibility of Travellers in the curricula is another critical factor. Travellers are not visible in the curricula. Teacher training is another critical issue, and Travellers need to be part of core teacher training and ongoing professional development. The reality is that the solutions are known. They need to be put in place. The Department of Education and other sectors responsible for third level and early years education need to put in place the systems to ensure they are delivered, rather than focusing on the responsibility of Travellers.

The education system should respond to Travellers at all stages of their learning. Marriage is not a barrier to third level education. As a matter of fact, the predominant cohort of Traveller women who entered third level education did so through the mature student route once the opportunities were available and resource and supports were put in place for them. That has to be recognised. The barriers are not within the community. Rather, they are within the education system.