Ms Bridget Kelly:

Yes. I also sit on the programme board as the National Traveller Women's Forum representative, and with Pavee Point and the Irish Traveller Movement. Bernard Joyce is on it as well. We have been doing a lot of work on the programme board's recommendations, of which there are 32. To date, ten of those recommendations have been implemented, but they are very small and are only the tip of the iceberg of what needs to be done to address the Traveller accommodation crisis for our community. One of them relates to an ethnic identifier. That recommendation went on for almost a year to try to get it. To me, it seems to be little but to the Department, it was a big thing. In any event, the Traveller identifier, as it is called, is now used on social housing application forms.

As I touched on earlier, some work has been done on collaboration with the census office and so on, but where we need to see real change is with a national Traveller accommodation authority, which Mr. O'Sullivan and Ms O'Shea mentioned. The function needs to be taken away from local authorities because for years they have failed the Traveller community when it comes to the delivery of Traveller accommodation. The only way we are going to see change is when that authority has been put in place. It needs to be driven by Travellers, in collaboration with the Minister and whoever else, but it really needs to be moved on. We are at the early stages of talking about that at the moment.

Another recommendation relates to Part 8 of the planning Act, which definitely needs to happen. As we know and as I have experienced at a local level, along with everyone else here who represents Traveller organisations and the community, we have seen that even though the funding is there and the local authority would locate somewhere where a specific site could go, when it comes to Part 8 some councillors seek to block Traveller accommodation. We need that power to be removed from councillors to ensure Part 8 will get over the line. I am not sure whether that is an issue for Spring Lane at the moment-----