Ms Anne Costello:

As stated earlier, many Travellers prison say that prison was their first positive experience of education. There are some really good teachers in prisons who work with them. We do not support the idea of segregated classes for Travellers or anything of that nature. Peer support can be very strong. If one Traveller attends school, he or she will encourage others to come down. That is often the way. They assure them that it is not like school was because that is where they had the negative association and the shame and failure associated with it. Where it works, it works really well but the issue is that many Travellers are not coming down to school at all because they do not see the value of it. They are not convinced that they will not have that same experience. Sometimes they do not see the benefits of it because they do not think it will have a significant impact. As a result, we need to do a lot more work. June Edwards, who is a Traveller liaison teacher with the ETB, will speak later in the afternoon. It has piloted initiatives across prisons in Dublin where each prison has a teacher dedicated to putting the spotlight on Travellers. This has been hugely successful. It is where they just encourage them down. They have adapted some of the curriculum to make it more relevant to Travellers and have included stories about Travellers in literacy, but we need a lot more. There is insufficient focus on literacy in prisons. This is where, unfortunately, many Travellers in prison are. They need support in respect of literacy.

Ms Ní Chinnéide probably has more information on psychiatry but I know there are long waiting lists to access counselling services. Again, at our most recent conference, Travellers spoke about the harmful impact until the Traveller Counselling Service came in and how they felt somebody understood them and was someone they could talk to. That is why we really want to encourage more of that. Again, where they access the services, they are usually very good but it is the waiting list that is a problem.