Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh:

I am older than the Cathaoirleach by a good ten or 20 years. I am worn out. This issue of Traveller accommodation has been with us for so long and it is eroding our culture and damaging our young people and their self-esteem. We are not progressing compared to our settled peers and we are on the commission. I carry the weight of Traveller identity in ways that maybe my fellow commissioners do not know or will never understand. We have done our best. We have offered local authorities the carrot to improve. As in Europe, with Roma and Travellers, there seems to be an entrenched systemic form of institutional racism which is hard to root it out and it is hard to make any progress. While there is a lot of money and resources put into different reports, it does not tackle racism. I also hope that local authorities - maybe new generations of workers in there with new anti-racist training - will achieve more. We are not asking for much. Anyway, I am taking up too much time.