Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I thank CLM and FLAC for coming in today. I think justice is a critical part of equality for Travellers. Whether it is top down, bottom up or however you might like to describe it, we have to deal with the over-representation of Travellers in our prison system and the level of homelessness in the Traveller community. Even last year, Travellers did not have access to the €300 everyone else had access to. This is by the Government and I know there are Deputies from Government parties here. We had Traveller primary healthcare workers who worked during the pandemic. They worked on halting sites and worked with our community. Every other healthcare worker received that €1,000. That is money which they were entitled to. I would never say they should not. It is the same with migrants and refugees, with the two-tier system of Ukrainian refugees and refugees of colour, people who are black and brown, where we pay some refugees €21 and others €200. I am not saying those who receive €200 should have that taken from them and that they be given €20. My belief is we need to bring provision up. Equal it up rather than bringing it down. It is like that for the Traveller community and you can see it through every single system. Travellers have organisations over the past 40 years, like Pavee Point and the Irish Traveller Movement, which also has a legal part. David Joyce is a qualified barrister, and while I cannot speak on his behalf or anything, Travellers are good enough to have those roles so we create those spaces for members of the Traveller community to be judges, solicitors and be successful. Even in prisons, it would be for Travellers to be prison officers and for Travellers to be members of the Garda. We do not always have to be the ones who are in the prisons. The opportunities are just not there. My colleague Senator Ruane is doing a lot of work in the area of legalising drugs, for instance, cannabis, for personal use. Where a settled person might get a warning if they had something in their pocket, a member of the Traveller community does not get the warning. It is a tougher prosecution for a member of the Traveller community. All that information is there. Anne Costello has done so much work at national and international levels on how Travellers are over-represented in the prison system.

I thank FLAC and CLM. It was brilliant that Seán reached out to me a few months ago. It opened up such a can of worms, but in a positive way. We need to deal with this. We need to deal with over-representation and how, in Ireland in 2024, Travellers face such discrimination and racism in this country. We are not looking to put down another group. It is not a race to the bottom. I am doing some work with the Irish Network Against Racism, INAR, today. People often say if you were gay or black you would get better treatment, but discrimination is discrimination. Racism is racism. Hatred is hatred. We need to protect all people. It is so dangerous now to be a person of colour, a member of the Traveller community or to have a disability. It is important to have this platform as a member of the Traveller community and to be able to tease out these issues. I would say to Ms Lucey and Ms Heavey that the most important thing is having these solutions brought to us and for people to know that FLAC and CLM exist. They may have very few workers and little funding support from the Government. There is also Chris McDonagh and the Traveller Mediation Service. That is another group the committee should bring in. Chris does absolutely brilliant work with members of the Traveller community on the ground in the area of mediation.

Again, I thank everyone so much. We look forward to working with them in the future. Most important, we look forward to the implementation of the recommendations. We cannot implement them, however, because, as a committee, we have little or no power. We do not have a shilling to our name beyond getting a lunch if we bring in a group. We have very little power. All we can do, and that includes the Government TDs who are here, is keep up the pressure and hold the Government to account. That accountability is for racism and discrimination that is considered acceptable in our country now.