Mr. Martin Collins:

Many Traveller organisations, including those represented, have during the years undertaken initiatives and projects to engage with the school community, for example, organising human rights days and intercultural days. All of the Traveller organisations are doing this work on a shoestring budget. We are not supported or resourced to do it, which means that there are significant constraints. Traveller organisations need to be supported financially to develop this work.

A fundamental point must be made. We have played our part and will continue to do so, but Traveller organisations are not a substitute for the State. What we do does not absolve it of its responsibilities in ensuring Travellers have access and progress at all levels of the education system. We need to move away from what might be called ad hocery to a more structured, institutionalised policy response from the State on the issue of Traveller access to education.

That is why there is a clear need for the development and implementation of a Traveller education strategy and for that strategy to be developed in partnership with Traveller organisations. We need to see the re-establishment of the national Traveller advisory consultative forum. We need a process in which we can engage in constructive dialogue with the policymakers in the Department of Education and Skills and other relevant stakeholders.