Ms Maria Joyce:

I thank Ms Costello for that wider perspective on the over-representation of Travellers in prison. As she said, I will focus on Traveller women.

Traveller women in prison are a particularly vulnerable group. They are a forgotten, neglected group of women in the prison system, which reflects the racism, oppression and marginalisation Traveller women experience at wider societal and institutional levels. The National Traveller Women's Forum, NTWF, has begun to focus on their needs following research in 2016, when the Travellers in Prison Initiative interviewed 12 Traveller women in prison, which gave us a better insight into how they ended up in prison and the issues they faced while in prison and post release. Their honest stories make a compelling call for justice, rights and the action needed to bring about positive change in their lives. That research in 2016 also highlighted that 22% of women in prison at that time were Traveller women. Ms Costello highlighted the causes of over-representation of Travellers in prison. The reality is that concrete action is needed to ensure that this trend is reversed.

The NTWF acknowledges the funding we receive from the Irish Prison Service, IPS, to deliver peer support in the Dóchas Centre. Through that work we have a better insight into the complexities of the women's circumstances. While Traveller women in prison have much in common with other women, they experience additional layers of racism and oppression. Many have experienced the trauma of close family bereavement through suicide, mental health problems and drug addiction, with some progressing from prescribed drugs to illegal drugs. There is also the issue of domestic violence, and many of the women grew up in care and now their own children are in care. There are also the challenges and difficulties Traveller women face when engaging with the relevant services to attempt to reconnect with their children on release from prison if their children are in care or have gone into care as a result of the mother's prison sentence. A number of women over recent years have highlighted that as a particularly difficult and challenging experience.

The women have identified the need for supports as soon as they come into contact with the criminal justice system. These supports could include: information; help in linking with existing services - for example, mental health, addiction, family support or housing services; routes into employment to ensure routes out of poverty; and support to maintain contact with their family and children if they are in prison.

There is a significant need for equal access to education while in prison and a real need to ensure that culturally appropriate services are accessible to Traveller women in prison. There also needs to be effective monitoring, as we have heard, of the ethnic data being collected across the prison systems to ensure that disproportional outcomes for Traveller women are addressed. The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission's public sector duty training needs to be implemented in its entirety in the prison system in order that we begin to see some eradication of the discrimination and racism Travellers experience in the prison system every single day, which needs to be addressed and in respect of which the relevant actors need to be held to account. These supports could help to divert Travellers away from prison and to navigate the prison system if they are imprisoned, particularly in respect of the care of their children. These supports could also help to address mental health issues and addictions and support Travellers' reintegration back into their communities after prison. We know there is a particular stigma for women when they leave prison, and that is very relevant to Traveller women.

Funding is needed to resource this work. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and Tusla recognise the need for a worker to undertake this type of wider support work and have made an application to the European Social Fund for funding. We also need the support of the IPS and the Probation Service in this area and an expansion of this work.

A number of Traveller women have told us that they have spoken to the Inspector of Prisons about perceived unfair treatment in prison. Some of the women have told the National Traveller Women's Forum that they feel let down that although they spoke out about the way they were being treated, the report has never been published. We seek the publication of the report. Women in the Dóchas Centre over the years have also highlighted the role of the Garda from the point of engagement with the criminal justice system to the major difficulty surrounding early release options. They very much depend on relationships with gardaí which, as we know, in the context of Travellers, are far from positive. As the committee heard Ms Costello say, in the internal Garda study in 2020 on attitudes towards Travellers not a single front-line garda surveyed had a favourable view of the community. That speaks for itself regarding Travellers' negative experiences of the policing system in Ireland. I thank the committee for the opportunity to raise our concerns here. It appears that our prisons are not safe for women, so we must watch this space. I look forward to the discussion in the question-and-answer session.