David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister and thank him for his kind words. I thank his officials, whom I know well from many years chairing the NTRIS group. I can empathise regarding many of the issues raised because I have been through this quite a bit. I agree fully with the Minister with respect to the outcomes and the need to have a measurement in this regard. The pilot project on education that was referred to is a way of achieving this because we know how many children are impacted. It is relatively easy to see how that will develop. I am interested in knowing when the pilot project will finish up. I realise we are to have an official from the Department of Education in next. What will the outcomes be?

The ethnic identifier has been kicking around for a long time. It will be interesting to see where it is going and when it will be finalised. I remember dealing with it for a couple of years, and it was always put off. It is quite challenging.

There are 149 actions in the NTRIS. How many have been completed? I get what the Minister said about ticking the box. That is a problem. The steering committee has over 30 people around the table representing Departments, agencies, local authorities and so on. Therefore, there are many people responsible, but ultimately accountability and reporting back in detail have been a challenge all the time. That will need to be addressed.

The mediation service has been a huge success. In the past, I had occasion to engage with the people involved. The Travellers in prison initiative has also been a great success. I was glad to see the horse project happening. Maybe it should happen elsewhere. How many of the actions have not been started yet? How many are facing a substantial delay? How many of the 149 have been completed?

What the Minister referred to earlier is typical of the NTRIS and perhaps some of the other strategies. The Minister said he does not have the facts and figures regarding housing and must go to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage for them. He will find himself trotting off to that Department. I am aware that the officials in the Minister’s Department, and previously those in the Department of Justice, have worked very hard behind the scenes engaging with officials in other Departments to try to get information and updates and to ensure something substantial will happen, not just a box-ticking exercise. There is an opportunity to proceed but I agree that there needs to be tightening up with respect to the outcomes and to making them truly measurable rather than box-ticking exercises somewhere along the way.

We are concerned about what is going on in the various accommodation centres. I visited many of them when I was Minister of State. They have not changed. There is pushback in the community, from citizens and others, when there is talk of Traveller accommodation being established anywhere. Councillors are very often blamed, but quite often they are just repeating what their constituents say to them. There is a volume of work to be done in society with regard to the prejudice the Minister referred to.

I wish the Minister well with this. It is extremely challenging. We really need to sit on it with respect to all Departments, State agencies and local authorities regarding their responsibilities. The NTRIS oversight committee can do a certain amount, but ultimately, because it has tentacles extending all over the place, it is very hard to follow every one of them and to ensure things happen.

That is my contribution. I wish the Minister and his officials well in their work.