Mr. Kevin Burn:

I thank the committee for inviting me here today. I represent Exchange House Ireland National Travellers Service and to add our voice to the excellent submissions that the committee has already heard from partners with whom we work. I am sure the committee will also hear excellent submissions later today.

Exchange House Ireland National Travellers Service is an organisation of Travellers and non-Travellers and has been a leading provider of front-line and support services to some of the most marginalised Travellers in Ireland since 1980. We are a multidisciplinary front-line service and provide education and training services, children and young people services, family support and crisis intervention services, addiction services and the national Traveller mental health service.

We also deliver partnership services through training, provision of expertise and dual working with other organisations to provide services to Travellers in Ireland. Our aim is to break down some of the barriers and discrimination to facilitate Travellers to access the range of services they need in an equitable way. One of the key things that we notice, in our day-to-day work, is that it is not about Travellers not trying or not wanting these changes to take place, but the barriers exist and it is difficult for them to break down those barriers without the support of some of these structures. I will go into that further.

We utilise a distinctive, multidisciplinary approach and work with the service user group who often face multiple social issues and barriers. We have a skeleton staff team throughout the organisation who can work with members of the Traveller community to instigate positive outcomes.

We support a number of the recommendations we have already heard today about clear representation of Travellers in the Oireachtas, whether in the Seanad or the Dáil. We believe that a rapporteur for Travellers should be appointed to the Houses of the Oireachtas.

We believe that we should establish a specific national strategy to tackle Traveller unemployment with the priority requirement of statutory bodies, semi-State agencies and public services to proactively employ Travellers. It is important that this is seen in the context of decades of exclusion whereby there have been multiple barriers, tangible and intangible. We are coming from a point of view where that employment has not been there for a long time and the changes needed are big ones. It will not happen without big changes. When a group has been excluded, in large part, from this type of employment for years, it takes more than a slight opening up to change things. There needs to be a commitment and resources with high level support to harness the knowledge and skills of members of the Traveller community. Putting in high level resources over the first years would mean that successes would become the future support network as others follow in their footsteps. This is an example of "if one does not see it, one does not think one can be it". We work with a number of young Travellers within our organisation and we are constantly trying to show them that they can be these things but, without the support at a structural level, they are not going to believe that.

We should hold to account the requirement of the public sector duty and for the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to direct the establishment of a paid internship scheme across public bodies by directly targeting Travellers. Without doing this, we do not feel it is ever going to happen. One can say that it is open to everybody and continue to make those claims but without clear policies that are putting in place a pathway, that is still not going to happen.

We also believe we should look at the issue of hiding ethnic identity and why it is taking place. We believe support networks should be offered to people in employment and apprenticeship roles so they do not feel isolated and are able to voice their concerns over the barriers they face. Some of these concerns and barriers are often the reasons why people are hiding their ethnic identity. They do not want to lose the position they are in.

We should be willing and able to address the inevitable bumps in the road without giving up on schemes, or the people on them, because that gives the message that the Government is happy to provide additional and needed support until things become difficult and then it is no longer worth it. It is about sticking with it and understanding that, when we are trying to make a big change and involve people who have been excluded from society for such a period of time, there will be bumps in the road. We must stick with these things.

I looked at with the following with an eye to getting more Travellers into employment and roles where they can make a difference. The National Football League, NFL, of American Football had a problem with getting head coaches from minority backgrounds and implemented what was called the Rooney rule. Under this rule, teams had to interview candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds for head coach positions. A version of this, or something similar, would give opportunities of fair interview to Traveller candidates for statutory roles or internships. A change is being made by even just offering the interview. Travellers would gain experience of interviews and powers at that level and it would mean that the people conducting the interviews and making the decisions would begin to see the talent within the Traveller community.

That should be in addition to reserved job roles and internships for Travellers as, without big changes like this, it will be impossible to reverse the decades of overt discrimination that has been faced. The benefits of this to both employment and relationships between Travellers and the majority population would be huge. It is only by getting prominent Travellers, who have the skills and knowledge, into these positions and working alongside the majority population that the change to society we all want to see will be made.