David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I have an appointment at 12 p.m. that I have to attend in another part of the city. I thank the witnesses for being here, for the work they are doing, and the presentations that they have made. I will be brief because Deputy Ó Cuív has covered some of the things I wanted to bring up.

In the Traveller accommodation expert review programme board update from last April, it mentions that the approved housing bodies, AHBs have not made use of the funding for halting site provision and that there is engagement with them on that. Could we get an update on what is happening there and why they have not made use of it? It seems to be the case that approved housing bodies would be the perfect route for helping in this issue of Traveller accommodation and the report seems to indicate that there are issues there. I would like to find out more about that. There is also talk about the establishment of a national Traveller accommodation authority. Maybe the Department or Ms Timmons might tell us where that is at the moment and what the thinking is around that?

I was really interested in Ms Farrelly's presentation. There was one particular issue that she mentioned. When I was in the Department of Justice and Equality myself - I was Minister of State with responsibility for this area - I had occasion to visit a number of sites. I think it was in Galway that I came across homework supports being made available and I thought it was extraordinarily effective. From my own experience in education over the past number of years, I have found that where homework clubs and supports are made available to children where they find it difficult to do homework at home, it makes the world of difference. When they go into school the following day they are up to speed with what is happening, and maybe even ahead of the others, instead of wondering what is going on, not having homework done, and not having the support at home to do it in some instances. I am really interested in and supportive of that provision and I would like to find out more about it.

What is the extent of homework supports that we have for Traveller children across the country? How many of them are there and how many children are availing of those supports? As for the teachers and support workers in there, what are their backgrounds? In some instances, they were Travellers themselves who worked as teachers or homework support workers in those areas. What I saw happening was that when children came from school, very often they got some food, they got help with their homework and they had some fun. It made it very attractive for them to go back. I am really interested in this key area, and especially where it occurs near the accommodation centres, where Travellers are living and can go there easily. In one place I visited, the standard was very poor but still and all, the work that was going on there was fantastic. Would it be possible for the committee to get an audit of this work across the country and of future plans, and an outline of where there is a deficit? It is money that is extraordinarily well spent if it is done. It helps to support children to stay in school when they go in and find they are successful in school, rather than the other way around. I want to applaud Ms Farrelly and her team on the work they are doing in this area and I encourage her to continue that and expand it out even more. It is probably one of the most impactful things we can do.

I want to ask this question as well, and maybe it is one for the Department. In category B of the Traveller accommodation expert review programme board update, there are ten recommendations and recommendation B.1 states "In the immediate term, encourage local authority chief executives to use their emergency powers, where necessary, to bypass problems with decision-making by elected members regarding Traveller Accommodation." This is the Part 8 stuff. In many instances, this causes an awful lot of issues, where elected members use their powers to stop Traveller accommodation being provided. This is the nettle we have got to grasp. I want to go deeper into it and ask why our elected members are making that decision. I am not saying it is good or bad or whether it is up or down but there is a reason why they are doing it. We have got to drill down into that and find out what are the societal and cultural issues that are causing elected members to do this, and then causing a report to be issued that says the powers of elected members have to be bypassed by the local authority chief executives.

As recommendation B.2 refers to putting "in place the legislative provisions to suspend the reserved function of elected members for approval of Part 8 proposals", there is a really serious issue here, and I would like to find out what the reason for it is. We have got to name that and call it out, and then deal with it in whatever we can, whether it means changing people's perceptions and attitudes to what is happening and so on. That is very challenging but until we face that head on, we are putting a Band-Aid on all of this and it is going to erupt in another area if we do not do that. There are also recommendations in the previous report about Traveller identifiers. Again, the Department might have some information on that. The Department might comment on transient sites and what work is being done there. I could go on, Chair, as there is so much more here but I was given five minutes earlier to make a presentation and I appreciate that. I thank the Chair, and also the witnesses who came in and their teams for the work they are doing.