Mr. Bernard Joyce:

I will come in for a second because I know time is running out. I apologise, but I lost the connection. By 2017, we had campaigned for 30 years for recognition and what I am hearing is concerning. I am hearing that city and county managers are implying that Travellers want to be housed. We are not looking to be assimilated into housing. We are looking for supports around culturally appropriate provision of accommodation. The expert report, which has 32 recommendations, indicates in full, through a thorough process of consultation and dialogue, how those recommendations should be implemented. It is a roadmap for delivering on needs and how those needs can be met. We are working in collaboration with the CCMA, the Department and others on those recommendations. We are asking for timelines for delivery, provision of accommodation and for people to be taken out of some of the worst conditions in the world, including homelessness, which should be addressed with immediate effect. Some 50% of Travellers in Galway, for example, who are less than 1% of the population, are homeless, so they are over-represented. That is not by chance.

There is an idea that people can somehow gloss over this in some way with Housing for All, which is not for everybody. Why are there no specific timelines for the recommendations of the expert report? They should have been very clearly outlined because we can then work towards removing those families who are in the worst conditions and improving their situation. There is a lot to be said about what has been stated here about Travellers somehow moving towards housing. We do not know that. It has been stated in previous Oireachtas committees, and the Minister said this earlier, that the Department will determine full needs on the basis of the data coming in. There is no ethnic identifier, however, so how can city and county managers say that the community is moving towards housing? At the same time, Traveller families are more than 22 times more likely to be discriminated against in the private rental sector and housing assistance payment, HAP, is not an option. I do not see the private sector as the solution to Traveller accommodation. I see the real solution as real engagement, consultation and dialogue. As I said-----