Ms Rebecca Keatinge:

I am hesitant to put a figure on it but I would say we have about 20 running at the moment. We focused on that as a priority because, as the Deputy is aware, those cases do not go to the Workplace Relations Commission and that is a significant barrier to Travellers bringing these cases themselves. They must go to the District Court and that has procedural complexities. Essentially, it is difficult to pursue them without legal input, and there is a distinct lack of legal support. There is no legal aid in this area. That is one thing that we set out in our list of observations on the Intoxicating Liquor Act. We made a strong recommendation that this form of discrimination should be brought back under the Equal Status Act and the remedy would be in the Workplace Relations Commission. We feel that body of work is filling an important gap.

We are also working on equality cases in respect of access to education and other services. The second largest body of our work relates to housing. That has been a major feature of the work of our legal team. That is predominately tackling three main areas. Living conditions are a major issue with respect to children with disabilities living in unsuitable accommodation, for example, where there is damp and mould, for prolonged periods, which impacts on health. Also related to that is accessing the accommodation of preference. We are working on cases where the Traveller accommodation programmes, TAPs, repeatedly say this or that will be done, for example, there will be a group housing scheme, but it is not delivered and the family potentially remains on an unauthorised site with no electricity or no running water for long periods. Those are not unusual situations for the legal team to encounter.

In respect of access to homeless accommodation, we have worked with families who are in unsuitable conditions or have to sleep in their car with sick children, who have to be hospitalised, but the local authority is not able to find them emergency accommodation as there may be some dispute around eligibility. It is regrettable that this might require a legal intervention in the High Court to resolve, but these are urgent issues that need to be addressed.

There are also issues, for example, around medical priority access to the housing list and to eligibility, including local connection. That is something that has come up in previous years.