Ms Ronnie Fay:

If it is okay, I will respond to that. I suppose we have found that there are good LTACCs and there are bad ones. We can send the committee more detailed information after this presentation.

The LTACCs are not an effective tool, and it is related to my earlier point in terms of implementation. Often they result in being a talking shop. The conversations happen but the action does not happen and the improvements do not happen.

What we saw during Covid, which is interesting and is something we would strongly recommend, is that public health needs to engage in Traveller accommodation issues. With the involvement of public health departments and doctors, we saw during Covid that we could get water, toilets, electricity, hardstand and rubbish collection delivered in a short space of time because public health and the Public Health Act superseded the local authority. We need to look at it as a potential enabler in terms of future delivery of Traveller accommodation.

We will send in more detail. There are concerns about some of the LTACCs. In some cases, local councillors deliberately go on them to make sure there is no site provided in their part of the constituency. There are some local authority officials who leave much to be desired in terms of their public sector duty to promote equality, combat discrimination and protect human rights.

As I say, in some areas - the Senator himself alluded to it - there is not effective Traveller participation but I would say that is the least of our problems. Some of the reasons people choose not to participate is they feel it is a complete and utter waste of time - you go there, you raise the issues and very little happens.

Something Pavee Point has been calling for for many years is a Traveller agency which will look at the oversight of all Traveller policy because accommodation is a key issue but so are health, education, employment and culture. We will not get ten agencies but if you look at what happened in Northern Ireland at a time of huge discrimination against Catholics, the power was taken out of the hands of local unionist-dominated councils and put into the Northern Ireland Housing Executive to try and ameliorate some of that. If you look at it in terms of the Republic, there is the National Roads Authority. There are examples where national institutional mechanisms have been put in place to try and address some of these issues. We would say the current structure is not working in terms of policy implementation for Travellers and we need to improve it. I am sure Senator Flynn will have much more to say on that issue from her own experience and expertise.