Ms Geraldine McDonnell:

I will follow up on the points Ms Fay, Ms Kavanagh and Mr. Reilly have already made. With regard to the primary healthcare workers, I see them as the most important Traveller workers.

In the context of Covid-19, when everyone was told to keep their distance, stay away and keep to themselves, the primary healthcare workers have been putting themselves in that situation, have been going out on the ground, collecting the work and giving support to other Travellers in a very serious situation while having the added stress and worry for themselves of going out onto the sites if they were not living there and possibly bringing the virus back home. That has a great impact on a person's health and overall mental health.

Ms Fay made a point earlier about the example of one teacher in school. I was engaged young, but when I was engaged to be married it was not a case of me thinking that I was going to get married and drop out of school or that I did not want education and did not want to work. However, when I came into school one of my teachers noticed that I was wearing an engagement ring. I was also called aside and told: "Geraldine, it is okay if you do not have the homework in this week, it is okay if you do not attend this class and it is okay if you do this." I was told all these things that it was okay not to do, whereas the previous week I was told to have my work in, to have something done and that I needed to be in school. It was assumed that I was just going to get married now that I had an engagement ring and that I did not need education. These are the barriers that Travellers are facing.

Then there is an added thing. I was in a large secondary school. I was the only Traveller in my year of more than 90 girls. There is the added pressure that there are not many Travellers in education, and one is also being singled out and highlighted in front of one's peers at a young age. That has an impact on one's mental health at a time when overall mental health for teenagers is very important. A young person's image among his or her classmates and peers is very important for the young person, and not just for a Traveller. However, when somebody is being called up in front of her classmates and being highlighted, as to whether she is going to get married and whether she will drop out of school, it adds an extra little layer to an issue somebody already would not need when in school.