Ms Chrissie O'Sullivan:

As representatives, it can sometimes sound like we are the voices of dissent. However, we are in this role as people who want issues to be raised and our voices to be heard. Some 20 years ago Mr. Martin Collins and I were on the national task force for Travellers. It is quite scary to be sitting here 20 years on talking about the same issues but in a much tighter context. At the time I had very young children at home in Cork; now I have very young grandchildren. In our community generations change quickly, much quicker than for settled people. Our young people get married and form a family unit at a very early age. We are seeing new generation after new generation and there has been little or no systematic change in the overall policy.

The task force's report was visionary for its time and gave us a huge platform and a huge framework, from which came the Traveller health units and Traveller accommodation units around the country. The Traveller health units are to the fore and doing tremendous work in supporting local Traveller organisations. They employ local Traveller community health workers and push primary health care issues at every level in terms of the delivery of the health message to Travellers. We are doing tremendous work in a co-operative way with the units. This is in stark contrast to what has happened with the Traveller accommodation units set up at the same time. We are pushing an open door when it comes to the Traveller health units, but we are hitting our heads off a cement wall when it comes to the Traveller accommodation units. However, I do not want to sound too negative, but there is huge room for improvement and co-operation. It does not bear thinking about that we could be here in 20 years time talking about the same issues. I certainly will not be here; I will not be coming back and should hope I would not have to. However, there is that possibility if we continue in this stagnant way where nothing changes. We have the rhetoric and reports. While it might sound at times as if we are the voices of dissent, we have the hard facts, the numbers and reports. Mr. Collins has a report on the impact of the austerity measures and how our community has been disproportionately affected by them. We are its voice.

I urge the committee to examine a more inclusive way of engaging with Traveller organisations on what is the best way forward. In truth, in some areas the policies to date are not working. I could not put it more strongly. However, I am hopeful people here have a commitment and want something to work. It makes no sense that we have resources and that there is co-operation, yet something still is not happening. It was Mr. Collins who said it was very hard to implement something when there were no consequences for not doing so. That is the fundamental point. When I was a child, no driver wore a safety belt. My father used to laugh at drivers who wore a safety belt. Not in 1 million years would I get into a car now and drive without wearing a safety belt. There is a sanction and a follow-through where one does not do so and people developed such a mindset very quickly. It is similar to the penalty points system. If someone knows a sanction will be imposed, things will be done and people will change their behaviour. That is what we need. We need a sanction that can be imposed on local authorities. One of the council representatives said some local authorities were performing well. We need to share that information with his or her colleagues throughout the country to see how we can work together to push this forward.