Mr. Thomas McCann:

From a Traveller perspective, what would go a long way to begin to heal some of the hurt would be an apology from the State to Travellers for the difficulties and the exclusion that the State has caused the Travellers. That is what Travellers on the ground are looking for and it would be a starting point. There needs to be accountability for the lack of implementation of policies. Political participation and the drawing up of policy is one side of it, however. In terms of implementation, there needs to be accountability. If there is no accountability, we will continue with a lack of implementation. As Ms Joyce says, that has been the way since policies have been developed. We need a national body, as was said, with responsibility for developing and implementing a national action plan to combat racism, not just for Travellers but across the board. This is a multi-ethnic society. As a State we really need to develop it collectively. That is something that needs to be there. It was there and was developing, but unfortunately it was cut and that was the end of that.

In terms of health and other services, we need an ethnic identifier for Travellers. Traveller organisations have been calling for at least ten or 15 years for an ethnic identifier across the services but particularly in the health services and mental health services. How can we plan a service when we cannot get the exact figures? I am not talking about individuals. I am talking about the members of the community. We need implementation of the all-island Traveller health study, which was carried out with many Travellers and is still on the shelf.