Ms Sinéad Lucey:

FLAC has a telephone helpline and clinics throughout the country. We would recognise that Travellers probably do not access our general services, phone line and clinics. The Traveller legal service was set up because you have to reach out to the community, make sure that it knows that you are there and that a dedicated service exists. Regarding access to legal services for Travellers, the distinct legal issues that impact on the Traveller community do not impact on the general population or the settled community.

They may have family law problems that solicitors can deal with and so on but the specific issues regarding Traveller-specific accommodation, evictions and equality are not the common currency of most solicitors so, even if we were to refer Travellers to our clinics, they would probably meet a solicitor who would be unable to deal expertly with their inquiry. That is why, in our submission, we have emphasised the importance of legal services for Travellers being provided by people who are experts on those issues. I just wanted to add that in terms of that analysis.