Ms Brigid Quilligan:

I thank the committee for taking the initiative to hold these hearings and, in particular, for inviting the Irish Traveller Movement to discuss the issue of the State's failure to recognise Travellers as an ethnic group and the implications in the context of the State's compliance or otherwise with the ICCPR.

I am a Minceir Beoir or Traveller woman from Killarney and I am the director of the Irish Traveller Movement. The Irish Traveller Movement is a national membership organisation representing Travellers and Traveller organisations. It was founded in 1990. One of our core principles and one of the issues on which we were founded is to challenge the racism that we, as Travellers, face in Ireland and to promote integration and equality in Irish society. One of the means by which it is necessary to achieve our objectives is for the State to formally recognise my people's distinct ethnicity.
Our presentation is divided into five broad sections: we will examine the relevant concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee under the ICCPR in 2008; we will examine the status of Irish Travellers in the British Isles; we will note the comments of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the State's failure to recognise my community's ethnicity; the managing solicitor of the Irish Traveller Movement, Susan Fay, will discuss the difficulties that she has encountered as a direct result of ethnicity denial; and we will examine recent developments, namely, the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality and Defence recommendation that my people be recognised as an ethnic minority group.
The first aspect I propose to examine relates to the concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee of Ireland's compliance under the ICCPR in 2008. The committee stated that, "The State party should take steps to recognize Travellers as an ethnic minority group." Despite the 2008 recommendation of the committee the State continues its denial of my ethnicity. Four years' later, in 2012, paragraph 793 of the fourth periodic report on Ireland's compliance under the ICCPR, states, "Irish Travellers do not constitute a distinct group from the population as a whole, in terms of race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin." The State provides no rationale for this assertion. Flat denial of ethnicity is not consistent with the ICCPR. It runs contrary to Article 27 of the ICCPR which sets out that in determining whether an ethnic minority exists objective criteria should be used.
The second implication involves a situation of Travellers across the British Isles and the inconsistency of our ethnicity recognition. It is widely accepted that my community satisfies the standard legal and sociological criteria for recognition as an ethnic group and it is recognised as such by the British and Northern Irish authorities, as being separate from non-Traveller Irish people. The State's two statutory human rights and equality bodies, the soon to be merged Irish Human Rights Commission and the Equality Authority, have analysed the sociological and legal criteria and both have consistently concluded that we are an ethnic group and should be recognised as such.
The implications of the failure of the State to recognise us as an ethnic group is highlighted by the ridiculous situation whereby if I take the Enterprise train to Belfast and I pass through Dundalk, I am not a member of an ethnic group but then minutes later when the train pulls into Newry, I am. This ridiculous situation also highlights the fact that denial of ethnicity runs contrary to the principles of equivalence contained in the Good Friday Agreement.
The Irish Government has never satisfied the burden of proof in its failure to recognise my community's right to self-identity or to identify it as an ethnic minority group. This ongoing denial of an indigenous ethnic minority creates key challenges for the State's international reputation and seriously undermines its position as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.
As set out in our written submission, the Irish Traveller Movement's concerns in October 2012 were noted by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Pillay. The chief of the indigenous and minority section of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, responded in writing to our concerns. Her comments are worthy of inclusion on the record of this House. She states:

While there is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a minority under international law, there are certain criteria that should be taken into account when discussing this issue, including the self-identification of people belonging to a specific group such as the Irish Travellers. At the same time it is important to note that an existence of a minority is a matter of fact, not of law, as it was affirmed already in 1930 in the Greco-Bulgarian communities case before the Permanent Court of Justice. Furthermore, the applicability of Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, inspired by this article, is not subject to official recognition of a minority by a state. The official recognition by a state of a minority group, however, can be instrumental in securing all human rights to its members. It can also contribute to the stability of a state. OHCHR supports all efforts that would result in a higher protection of the human rights of Irish Travellers in Ireland and wider.

I will ask the managing solicitor of the Irish Traveller Movement, Susan Fay, to outline some of her experiences in advising clients on their legal rights and the difficulties she faces with regard to ethnicity denial.