Ms Maria Joyce:

It is something we have long called for in other spaces and other submissions on this issue. All childcare services are directed at Travellers to the point that there is an over-representation, as I flagged in my submission. I do not know whether I made that point in my opening statement. My submission sets out that according to the limited data available:

While Traveller children represent less than one percent of the total population, an internal Department of children study from 2019 found that 12 percent of children on Tusla’s Child Protection Notification System Register were Travellers.

Therefore, we know there is a gross over-representation within the care system. Tusla itself knows that. We sought the current statistics before we came here, but they were not available. We looked at the online reporting systems but we could not extract numbers, even in the context of Traveller children. When we were before the previous committee on the special interests of Travellers under the chairmanship of Senator Flynn, the statistic being floated by Tusla was that 6% of its caseload comprised Traveller children. By comparison, less than 1% of the population are Travellers.

The programmes within the Tusla support and care system in this area are not designed in conjunction with Travellers, and Travellers are not employed within the system, but they are targeting Traveller families and Traveller children. It is vitally important that there are more roles for Travellers as social workers and care workers, and Travellers in other roles within Tusla across the system, right to the top levels. We would argue it is important that direct engagement with the community by senior staff in Tusla, including senior social workers, is preventative and not crisis intervention.

We echo the calls that have made in the past for initiatives to make this happen. A number of years ago, Tusla matched third level grants where Travellers were in social care or in social work. That was an important initiative, but we need more of that. We need a more sustained targeted approach. Just as we are looking at the HEIs and the Higher Education Authority putting in place quotas in relation to Travellers in third level, Tusla needs to start looking at seeking to have quotas in terms of staff at all levels of the organisation. Targeted supports and measures are needed to make that happen.