Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I would first like to address the elephant in the room. I am not a member of a political party; I am an Independent Senator. I happen to be from the Traveller community. I know this was not a committee that was fought for, if you will, in the conversations around committees. I am accountable to members of the Traveller community. While I wish the Cathaoirleach well in his role and look forward to working with him, I hope we can from this day be more positive. I emailed Deputy Duncan Smith for three weeks and it was unfortunate that he did not get back to me. When he did, he sent me a one-liner saying that Deputy Lawlor is the Chairperson of the committee and that, therefore, I should pick it up with him. I hope that from today we can work well together. I hope to be a crutch for the Chair and to give him the best advice I can as a member of the Traveller community. I genuinely wish him every success. I hope to God we can have better communications from today than those in the past.

This is about 40,000 people in Ireland who are not treated equally. We also have to include the Roma community in this committee. That will be really important. It is important I say this today because my political party is ordinary people of Irish society and members of the Traveller community.

Again, I wish the Cathaoirleach well and I know many colleagues wish him well. I look forward to being a crutch and working hard in this committee. We know the inequalities. We know from the previous committees and from decades past the inequalities that Travellers face. One of our roles in this committee could be holding the Government to account for implementation.