Dr. Robbie McVeigh:

Going back further to the incitement of hatred legislation, it was included to ensure Travellers were not left out and there is no doubt the inclusion was progressive. My reading of it is that if the Government were to change the position and make it clear to CERD it was reporting to it with Travellers included as an ethnic group, the issue would fall because anyone who contested it in an ordinary court case would have to refer back to what the Government stated on ethnicity. If legislators want to be very safe, as they did in the North, they would use a clause similar to that in the Race Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1997, which includes a definition of Travellers which Travellers are happy with and, by and large, everyone else including those concerned about the extension of protection to other groups also accept. It is a tight definition which works.