Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My apologies Chairmen; I was trying to multi-task and that is dangerous for a politician. I thank Mr. Joyce and Mr. Cummins for coming in. I appreciate Mr. Joyce's passion, in particular. I feel embarrassed as an elected representative that many of these issues are continuing. My earnest hope is that over the coming 12 months, we will see some progress, particularly with regard to transient accommodation and halting sites. It is an indictment on us as we head into the second centenary of this nation. We pride ourselves on being a proud nation and also as being a nation of empathy. It is an indictment of us that those standards of conditions are allowed to prevail.

I come from County Longford, which has the highest population per capitaof Travellers in the country. We have also the fastest growing per capitaTraveller population aged under 15. A huge part of my constituency is the Traveller community. They enhance my day in many respects and I have a great engagement with them. The biggest single issue they have is housing. While transient accommodation and halting sites and so forth are hugely important and must be addressed as a matter of urgency, 45% of the Traveller community are still currently in local authority or in approved tenancies, and a further 20% or thereabouts are in private rental. That is a challenge that is not being addressed in anything I have heard today. The Minister of State said that money is being allocated to capital but I still see many Traveller families, and particularly younger Traveller families, who feel marginalised in some of the best local authority estates that we are building. In their wisdom, local authorities will still say that they will put one or two Traveller families into an estate and keep them separated. That is not the way Traveller culture works. The young people, in the main, do not want to be in halting sites or do not want transient accommodation. They want to get into a home and they value a home. They invest heavily and put any spare money they get into their home. We heard some people talk about a wrap-around service and I would agree with Mr. Cummins. It is not entirely the role of the local authorities to address the Traveller issue. Other agencies have to come on board as well. As much as capital investment is important, and it is the first thing that is needed, there is also a significant resourcing issue. People have talked about putting somebody in charge of this in the Custom House. We really need boots on the ground in local communities. We need resource workers. We need people in with the Traveller community but also with other members and other families on the estate to create greater integration. We have an awful lot to learn from the Traveller community. They have a wonderful tradition and culture. I have said many times that I believe Longford is greatly enhanced as a result of that. It is a shared experience from which we can learn. My concern is that we need to get the capital issue sorted but we also need to put the resources in on the ground. We need more resource workers and more investment in our Traveller accommodation committees. We need to do everything else that we can do to help those people. At the end of the day, the bulk of our Traveller community are in existing accommodation. As I said, however, many of them feel isolated. I am sorry; I was rambling.