Mr. Martin Collins:

I will be extremely brief. We have provided our submission and as the Chairman said, the committee has already had one hearing on the issue of Travellers and education. Also, I am reminded that I and many others were in this building twice this year already speaking about Travellers and the challenges in respect of education. Some reports have come from that, one on progression from primary to second level. I believe there is a second report on the issue of reduced timetables, but I am open to correction on that, so people are well versed on the issues and the challenges facing Travellers in the education system. Nonetheless, we welcome once again this opportunity to address the joint committee on some of the challenges and, potentially, some of the solutions.

The Chairman made an opening comment about misconceptions. It is also a misconception to say that Travellers drop out of education. It is more a question of being pushed out of education when we have a system that is monocultural, that only reflects a majority perspective and culture, where there is no positive reinforcement or visibility of Traveller culture and Traveller identity, and where we have racism and discrimination. As we all know, the school yard and the classroom can be a microcosm of the wider society. All those issues are major factors in terms of Travellers not being able to access, participate in and get decent outcomes in terms of educational attainment. I prefer to use the term "pushed out" rather than "dropped out". That was certainly my experience having attended primary school many years ago.

I will focus on some of the recommendations we see as being key but before doing that I will make a more general point. We are living in very difficult and challenging times in Ireland in terms of human rights and equality across the board, not just for Travellers. There is no doubt that we have seen an increase in right-wing rhetoric and populism. I remind the members that we cannot be complacent about that. We need to be vigilant and we need strong political leadership in addressing racism and the rise of the right in Ireland.

In light of that, we welcome the recent consultative process in respect of hate speech and hate crime that the Department of Justice and Equality is carrying out. We all know that racism and discrimination can happen at many levels. It can happen at the individual level and also at the institutional level. We see the negative impacts of that in every aspect of Travellers' lives. This is clearly evident in the area of education, from what Mr. De Bhairdúin and the Chairman said in terms of the statistics, which I will not repeat.

I am also reminded of the first Hispanic judge in the United States Supreme Court. Her name is Sonia Sotomayor. She once said that unless we get equality in education, we will not have an equal society. The educational system, in my opinion, perpetuates that inequality.

A recent UNICEF report stated that Traveller children are still falling between the cracks, with the vast majority of Traveller children ceasing education before their junior certificate examination.

In terms of the recommendations, we are all well versed on the statistics. The challenge is to create a more inclusive learning context that promotes respect for diversity and interculturalism and that addresses racism at all its levels and in all its guises. One way of achieving that is through the Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill, which we welcome. We hope that Bill will be adopted and fully implemented, thereby ensuring Travellers will have positive reinforcement of their identity within the school curriculum.

We also need to deal with the culture of low expectations that many teachers and principals have in respect of Travellers. When that continues, it limits Travellers achieving their full potential and goals in life.

We want to see the re-establishment of the Traveller education advisory forum. Traveller organisations have no real way of feeding into the development and implementation of education policy. We want to see the re-establishment of that consultative forum, which was disbanded in 2016.

We want to see the development of a new Traveller education strategy. What we have is piecemeal. There is a sub-committee of the national Traveller and Roma inclusion steering group, NTRIS, but we do not have a clear strategy or policy for or on Traveller education. We want to see the restoration of the savage cuts made to the Traveller education budget, to the tune of 85%, imposed during the austerity period.

As I said in this room previously, we cannot deal with Traveller education in isolation from other issues. There is an interdependence in terms of access to secure, adequate and high quality accommodation, employment and healthcare and in addressing entrenched and institutionalised racism. We need a multifaceted, multi-agency, co-ordinated and structured approach to address these issues. Addressing one in isolation from the others is doomed to failure.