Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank everyone for their contributions. This has been a very important day. I have been sitting here looking at people and listening to them speak. People watching will say they are the "good Travellers". They are all the good ones who do not cause any old fights or get into any trouble. We are all the "good Travellers". Some of us may be "settled Travellers" as people tend to put us in boxes. We have the working class, the middle class and the upper class. Even in our community we have rich Travellers, not so rich Travellers and extremely poor Travellers. People do not see this.

It is not my job in the Chair to correct anybody but I cannot stand the term “settled Traveller” that was used today. I am a Traveller. I was born and reared on a halting site and I am absolutely okay with that. I am okay with being different. I want to be different. Being a member of the Traveller community makes me unique. I think we should all celebrate our uniqueness within Irish society, let that be as a person of colour, a disabled person or an LGBTQI+ person. We have gay people in the Traveller community, as well as intersectionality, neither of which we spoke about at all today. I just wanted to shine a light on that intersectionality.

In June 2017, before he died, Patrick’s father said, “We amount to something." That breaks my heart. RoseMarie Maughan spoke about her experience in the taxi. I have had a negative experience in a taxi while a serving politician. All us of us in these Houses, all of these young people here today, are all something. We are human beings and in Irish society we should be treated like human beings. In my first opening statement I said we were waiting 30 years to be part of these Houses. We were waiting decades and decades, not just 30 years. I was having the banter with Martin Collins earlier about being a Traveller activist for 40 years - how tiring. We get burnt out.

I wish to move on. Three weeks ago, I was rushed to Letterkenny hospital because my lung collapsed. I did not know my lung had collapsed; I thought I had a chest infection. I got a gown and was told my lung had collapsed. We talk about health statistics within the Traveller community. I am 34 years of age. However, it brings me to a different point. Not one doctor was an Irish doctor. They were Muslims, they were black, they were from India and different parts of the world, such as the Middle East. I thought, “Oh my God. These people are saving my life.” They are saving the racists’ lives as well. If you are a racist who does not like the blacks and you go into hospital, the colour of the person’s skin does not matter. That person is saving your life even though you are a racist.

We have hate crime legislation that only has to go through the next Stage. It is unfortunate that some political parties have done a U-turn on this vital legislation that needs to be passed for our community and all minority groups now more than ever. We heard Ms Muntean, a member of the Roma community, state that Roma women’s lives are at threat even walking their children to school. Muslim women find it difficult walking up our Irish streets. We have the legislation. We need the political will. This is one step forward. It is not hate crime speech legislation because we are not talking away the racism - that will never be done away with. We are not telling people not to call us names going down the street. A person will not go to jail for calling me a “scummy knacker”. That will not put a person to jail. Rather, what will deservedly put a person in jail is burning down people’s accommodation while we are in a homeless crisis. The hate crime legislation is not about locking people up; it is about education, which is what we should be focusing on. We need it. It is collective action. It is not only for our community; it is for LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities and people of colour - black and brown people. We see refugee camps getting burnt. Traveller accommodation has always been getting burnt. Even during the pandemic, houses were burnt in Galway. If that is not hatred, I do not know what is - end of story. That is where this Government can put in this change next week. It is already there. We talk about small wins. Straightaway, it can pass that legislation that will give us all a little sense of protection within Irish society and will give us, the others, that little piece of protection.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, said to me a few weeks ago in passing conversation that there will be a stand-alone Traveller mental health strategy. I will follow up on that. I know we were just talking and it is not on record. However, I believe with all my heart that she wants better facilities for Travellers’ mental health. However, what I believe and actions are horses of different colours. We have 84 recommendations but nobody is held accountable for those recommendations not being implemented. The can gets kicked. We have so many Ministers. There have been three Ministers with responsibility for Traveller accommodation since I have been in the Seanad. You build up a relationship with one of them and then they are gone, and you have to start all over again and try to build up a relationship with another. Then there is the Minister for housing and there are Ministers for health and mental health. There are many Ministers and not enough action in Irish society in general.

RoseMarie Maughan spoke about young people in our community dying through suicide. We are not talking about addiction. We are not talking about the young Traveller men in their early 30s who are like the walking dead, to quote Mags Casey from a conference we had two days ago. There is an epidemic of drugs and alcohol addiction within our community and we cannot stop it by ourselves. We need a mental health strategy that will help our community to thrive. Every person in this Chamber who is a member of the Traveller community knows somebody right now who is really struggling with their mental health and knows somebody who is addicted to drugs or alcohol. I know it is because of racism and discrimination. Sure, as Travellers, we do not want the work and we do not need the money. Of course we want the work if given the opportunity. My big daddy, Lord have mercy upon him - we called my grandfather “big daddy” - used to say that if Travellers were clever enough, we would run the Dáil. What he meant by that was if we had the opportunities, we would be successful.

The Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, did good work with higher and further education for our community, to be fair and give credit where credit is due. I have great faith in the Taoiseach when it comes to driving the policies for equality for Travellers in this country. However, again, it is the actions. The actions do not match and there is nobody to hold to account. We have Ministers in the Lower House of Leinster House. These are people who got in here off the back of land being too valuable for the Travellers. One poster said, “We are not going to build a halting site for Travellers”. This kind of hatred and discrimination we have from the top down is absolutely scandalous and should not be accepted.

I know I am going on but there are so many issues. While we move forward very slowly, there are many issues that need to be addressed. We are all a wee bit burnt out - there is the Donegal, the “wee bit” - when it comes to that driving for change because it feels like we are driving but we are not reaching the destination where we need to be. We need that destination to be equality of opportunity. Last week, I said my little girl, Billie, wants to be a doctor. That could change because she is only four years old. Lacey wants to be a doctor for dogs, so she wants to be a vet. She is only two. I want my children to have equality of opportunity, and I want my brother’s children to have equality of opportunity as well. I want to get rid of addiction within our community and get the services we deserve as a community. We do not need these things; we deserve them. We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Most importantly, as a community we deserve to thrive. We deserve to go up in Irish society instead of down. I open up the door, go out and get into my little blue car to come here, and I see nothing but the mental health crisis on Labre Park halting site.

I see nothing but addiction and there is little or nothing by way of intervention. We have been failed over and over again and this Government can now do something about that. Next week, with the support of Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, and the Labour Party, we can get the hate crime legislation across the line. We need that legislation to feel protected within Irish society.

Our next speaker is Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh. It is brilliant to see people being successful and reaching their full potential. We are going to have a few more doctors in our community, which we heard about today. I am honoured to give Dr. McDonagh the floor.