Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have almost used up the time and I wish to make some comments. First, I am inspired by your fantastic presentations. I have worked with the Traveller community with an organisation called the RISE Foundation. I learned from phenomenal women in the Traveller community. I looked on them as warrior women, to be honest, because of the daily discrimination they had to face. People do not really understand it. I think about it to this day, what it is like even to walk down the street and have comments made. There was one story about a woman who got a house in a housing estate. There was a little green outside the housing estate and she sent her little boy, who was only five or six years of age, to play football with the other children. He went out, played and had great fun with the children. On the next day he was sent out the children were told not to play with him. That is the daily discrimination. There was devastation for that family and for the little boy. I still carry it with me today.

I hear what our guests are saying. I thank Geraldine McDonnell for her fantastic presentation. Mr. Patrick Reilly's recommendations were very powerful and they will definitely go into our report. I worry about implementation and action. I understand his comment about the many reports and conversations. There is no doubt that we need more action and we need to change. We need to change the discrimination that happens every day to the Traveller community. I believe there is hope with having Senator Eileen Flynn in the Oireachtas. She is a powerhouse. I am very happy that she is a colleague and I know she is doing great work here, so there is hope in here with Senator Flynn.

I thank you all. I did have a few questions but perhaps we can have you in at another time. They were about alcohol harm and mental health and whether alcohol harm has increased in the Traveller community. However, perhaps we will return to that at another time. We appreciate you attending the meeting today and I am sorry that we have run out of time. It was a powerful presentation and I thank you all very much.