Ms Maria Joyce:

I could not agree more. There are huge strides to be made in the inclusion of Traveller and other ethnic minority women, including Roma women, in the media in this sphere. It is not only about responding to remarks that are made, something that has come out into the public domain or research specific to Travellers being launched. Traveller women have so much to offer across the range of debate that takes place in the media. It is about creating the conditions and the supports and ensuring that resources and supports are there but it is also about media outlets addressing it. Travellers have been targets of the media in a derogatory or discriminatory way. It is about media outlets themselves looking at their own practice and, as was said, needing to dig deeper as to what they need to do to ensure that on all their platforms, there is diversity of women. However, on all their platforms, they need to look at what that diversity means in terms of women and that it is not only one group of women, but all women. On the contributions of the speakers Deputy Cronin referred to, when Ms RoseMarie Maughan, Ms Anne Marie Quilligan and Mr. Martin Warde are on, you are enthralled by them. They are there and they have something to say about what affects them and the issues of everyday life in Ireland but they are not getting the space from media outlets.

Resourcing and supports in that space in the media need to go in to make that happen. Targets and quotas need to be set because sometimes they are all that will create that bit of shift in relation to something happening. On the will, in the political sphere, I mean the political will. In terms of the media, as I said, I mean the will of those who can do that and make those decisions to include and diversify their panels and how they broadcast. Looking at ways and routes in, internships in the media to try and look at underrepresented groups would be an important piece targeting young Travellers and other groups. I refer to specific measures to address those deficits that are there.