Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The committee is looking at getting Cena in in the future. Cena is a housing agency led by Travellers, for Travellers. It is important we hear from Cena at a later date. Today is about holding other services to account. I thank Ms Molloy for raising that with us.

I wish to ask a question of Focus Ireland. We all know that Travellers are 22 times more likely to be discriminated against when looking for accommodation in the private sector. Do the witnesses have any suggestions as to how we could tackle the discrimination and racism Travellers face when looking for private accommodation? I see many a Traveller homeless today, living in hotels and so on and being evicted from those hotels. A lot of the time people have issues when homeless. What I mean by that is that homelessness has an impact on their mental health, well-being, etc. As a community development worker, I have even seen Travellers refused homelessness services many a time. Mr. Allen rightly said community development workers play an important part in trying to support families and individuals to get the likes of HAP, to get onto various lists and so on. How can we tackle discrimination within this sector?