Mr. Martin Collins:

It is obviously something the Traveller organisations collectively are pursuing so there would be ring-fenced funding available that would support what we would call targeted interventions or initiatives to support and enhance Traveller inclusion in mainstream cultural institutions. We see that as an affirmative action measure, which is allowed under the Equal Status Act and is something Mr. Joyce also referenced. The framework convention on the protection of national minorities also talks about affirmative action to support and enhance Traveller inclusion and disability inclusion in mainstream cultural institutions. However, in order to achieve that, we also need targeted interventions and ring-fenced funding. Travellers are well-placed to access that funding and to pursue special measures that would support that.

Let us be honest, we are completely invisible and excluded in our mainstream cultural institutions. They only reflect a white, settled perspective on life, and minorities, including Travellers, of course, are not represented. That is a wrong that needs to be addressed. Our people have been on the island since the fourth century yet we are a mere footnote in any historical text. As I said, we are certainly invisible in the cultural institutions. This is about acknowledgement, affirmation, validation and acknowledgement of our culture, our identity and how that gets supported and respected by the State.

The State has an obligation. Irish history and culture are not the sole preserve of the majority population. We have a shared experience and a shared identity on the island going back to the fourth century but we, as a community, also have a very distinctive experience, a very distinctive identity and a very distinctive outlook on life, and we need to see that reflected in the school curriculum and in our cultural institutions.