Eileen Flynn (Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have a few questions. I could not sleep last night thinking of this committee meeting today. I was so nervous, as a Senator who happens to be a member of the Traveller community and as someone who was born and reared in a run-down halting site. We are expected to police these halting sites ourselves. The homes are not future-proofed or fit for purpose. There are families in many halting sites, such as those in Tallaght, Finglas, Kerry or Donegal - you name the county - which are not fit for purpose for our Traveller community.

When I first started in the Seanad, I remember hepatitis being on one of the sites due to dirty water. That was in 2021, in today's Ireland, and no one was held accountable for at least ten children and adults from a specific halting site in Dublin ending up in hospital. I remember meeting the Minister at the time. There was an attitude of it being the Travellers who blocked up the pipes and so forth. The blame was put back on the community. Local authorities take little or no responsibility for the failures they serve to our community on a daily basis. The Traveller accommodation programmes, TAP, have not worked and will not work for Traveller accommodation. I have sat on TAP programmes since I was 18 years of age. I am now almost 35 and I have seen little or no change in accommodation for the Traveller community.

Deputy Ó Cuív touched on Travellers in receipt of HAP going for rental accommodation. It is tough for people in the general population to get rental accommodation today, but it is tougher for members of the Traveller community. They face racism and discrimination. I am currently dealing with a young woman in Ardagh in Donegal who is living in an apartment in which you would not put a dog. Her youngest child is five months old. She has three children living in a one-bedroom apartment. This is no disrespect to the landlord because when the woman first moved in, she did not have any children. I was in the apartment in January and, believe me, none of us would live in that kind of accommodation.

Every single day, there are children, including Traveller children, living in unsafe, cold and impoverished accommodation. We have seen that in Cork and with the Ombudsman for Children's report last week in the children's committee. The ombudsman openly said we are failing children, including children from the Traveller community.

While I understand the Minister of State's Department has provided homes for more than 300 children from the Traveller community, what kind of homes are they? As for the caravan loan scheme, to the best of my knowledge, and from some of those trailers I was in, the caravans have no plumbing or heating. They are shelters rather than a home. They are shelters for some of these children. Having a roof over your head is better than being out on the streets. When representatives of National Traveller MABS appeared before this committee, they said we must and should do more for Travellers when it comes to the Traveller caravan loan scheme. The maximum loan amount for a trailer is €40,000.

I am not here to divide - I want to bring people together - but a lot of these trailers come from holiday camps. People have already lived in them for ten or 20 years and had them in their lovely little holiday camps, be that in Donegal, Wexford or wherever else. They have got 15 or 20 years' use out of them. They go to them in the summer and it is ever so grand. When members of the settled community want to live in caravans for the summer and want to go around in camper vans, it is absolutely fine, but our community, an indigenous community of this country, who are Travellers, hence the name, are not allowed to travel because of the trespass legislation. Some think it is okay that we have got over 160 caravan loans since the caravan loan scheme was implemented. Again, a lot of those trailers are not fit for purpose. Some of them are ongoing cases. I cannot talk about one that is under an investigation. It is great saying we have provided over 160 caravan loans, but National Traveller MABS and the National Traveller Women's Forum will tell you the scheme is not working. TAP has not worked. It will not work. What is the solution? What can we do?

Deputy Buckley talked about the stand-alone Traveller authority that was recommended by the expert group in 2019. Out of over 30 recommendations, we have implemented ten since 2019, and that is absolutely not acceptable. We would not, as a community, fill Croke Park on an all-Ireland day. There are 40,000 Travellers in this country, and we are failing Travellers every single day.

Next week, in the Seanad, we will have the Planning and Development Bill in front of us. Our Civil Engagement Group has recommendations that will make sure that Travellers are at the heart of planning and investing in local communities. Today, Minister, can you give me your word that you will support some of our amendments to that Bill? Of course, you have not seen them, but I am a member of the Traveller community who has reached out to Traveller organisations, and there is no accountability for the failure in Traveller accommodation - absolutely none. What we are looking to do, as the Civil Engagement Group, is to hold local authorities to account. I know, Minister, that you are passionate about that Bill and were before you were a Minister of State and want to see good implementation at a local level for everybody. Unfortunately, however, nobody is held accountable for Traveller accommodation. We are reading out all these lovely statistics here today - and I do not mean this disrespectfully because I have worked with the officials sitting around this table in a very positive way - but, again, the Traveller community is not heard. We continue to fail and it is deemed absolutely okay.

In my four years here, you are the third Minister of State with responsibility for Traveller accommodation and, as Deputy Ó Cuív said, you have come into office at the tail end of this Government, which is very difficult. It is nothing personal, Minister, nor is it anything personal against the officials here. It is that continual failure to provide Traveller accommodation and adequate Traveller accommodation. What we have done for years, and what your Department has done for years, sadly, is try to make Travellers fake settled people. Travellers are now living in normal accommodation. Many Travellers do not want to live in standard accommodation but want to live on halting sites and in caravans. As Deputy Ó Cuív rightly said, it should be a matter of choice. Being the Chairperson of this committee and a member of the Traveller community, I see the absolutely dire conditions that Travellers live in the length and breadth of this country. No disrespect to the Department, but its numbers are not shown on the ground. The Irish Traveller Movement, Pavee Point and other Traveller organisations would say that we are failing the Traveller community around accommodation. I get it. There is a homelessness crisis in this country. We are failing people in general when it comes to housing in this country but, by God, we are failing the Traveller community and there is no accountability for that.

How can we do better with the Traveller caravan loan scheme? I know that over 160 loans have been given out over the past few years but I would rather they not be given out if they are not future-proofed. How can you support us to have good, sustainable future housing for the Traveller community? Who is held accountable for the non-delivery of Traveller accommodation? Will you next week support some of our amendments to the Planning and Development Bill relating to Traveller-specific accommodation?