Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I had a number of questions. The witnesses have not answered them but have diverted me to other things I want to say to them. Ms McDonagh and Ms Joyce have provided the answers for the questions we are asking. We are trying to deal with the issues outlined in their submission and the longer one we received earlier. We need to recruit more Traveller people into the services. The cruelty of man was raised earlier. I was talking to people in Limerick about that on Monday. It was not just the Traveller community, it was others who were brought to institutions and the historical stuff that is there from that. Ms McDonagh has explained how transformative her being from a Traveller community and being a social worker is for her area. That needs to be replicated.

One of the questions I was going to ask is the statistics they outlined in terms of Travellers being over-represented in the care system. They are very stark, in fairness. A total of 12% of children are on the Tusla child protection notification system, despite being less than 1% of the population. The previous committee was referred to. I think somebody said it was 6% the last time. Do we know why that doubled since that time? Is it more reporting or what? Do the witnesses feel there is a targeting of the Traveller community by State organisations, or are there other reasons why the figures are so high? Why is it 12% when the children only represent 1%?