Dr. Rosaleen McDonagh:

If I could respond in a very superficial way, I will then hand over to our legal expert. I believe we do need a Traveller accommodation authority. In the Deputy's life and in my life, we have to make ourselves accountable to somebody, whether that is one’s boss, one’s partner or one’s family. I am accountable for my behaviour, my conduct and my financial comings and goings. The local authorities do not seem to be accountable to anyone other than themselves and, therefore, we need a broader body that would make people accountable for decisions that were made both inside and outside the room but also for decisions that were not made.

In the case of those reviews IHREC produced, I read some of the responses from local authorities. It would not be appropriate to name and shame them, even though I want to, because we are all accountable. Nevertheless, some of those responses were absolutely deplorable.