I welcome our guests. I remind people of their privileges and that they cannot participate if they are outside of Leinster House, etc. Those giving evidence have to be physically present within the grounds of Leinster House and should not criticise or make charges against any person, or identify him or her by name or in such a way that makes him or her identifiable. I think we all understand that.

I propose that we publish the opening statements from our witnesses. Is that agreed? Agreed. I suggest that we invite our witnesses to speak for five or ten minutes and that we allow members to ask questions and make comments for approximately five minutes. Members may ask more questions after everybody gets an opportunity to speak.

The committee is looking at Travellers' experience of the justice system. Today we will focus on Travellers in prison. The committee has already visited Castlerea Prison, Mountjoy Female Prison - the Dóchas Centre - and Oberstown Children Detention Campus. Travellers represent less than 1% of the population yet we make up 8% of male prisoners, 16% of female prisoners and 21% of children detained. The committee looks forward to hearing from our witnesses about this very important subject. We would like to hear about the experience of Travellers dealing with the justice system, including prison, and how we can make things better.

We are grateful to our witnesses for coming here today. They include representatives of the Irish Penal Reform Trust, the Traveller Justice Initiative, the Traveller Mediation Service and Barnardos.

Our witnesses are all very welcome here today.

It is very important for us as a committee to examine the justice system and, most importantly, why there are so many Travellers in prison in this country and what supports we need for Travellers. I am sure we all know the answers but it is important we document those answers and that this committee has a responsibility to work with the Traveller community.

We will begin with one quote a young man said to me in 2020. It was his first time to be in court and he was very nervous. I said to him he will be okay and that everything will be fine. He said, "No Eileen, I am already guilty." I said no, he would not be and that was up to the judge. He said, "I am guilty on the basis of being a member of the Traveller community." I want us all to be mindful of that before we start.

I will open it up to our witnesses. I ask Ms Saoirse Brady to begin.

James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Being a rural TD is often an interesting task. We represent many small villages and towns that are a long way away from Uisce Éireann’s headquarters and where there have been persistent issues with the role that Uisce Éireann was supposed to play in providing people with a quality water supply, including safe drinking water and proper wastewater treatment. One of those issues can be seen at a village called Ballyhooly, which is near Fermoy in north County Cork. I have been inundated with people from its community telling me about how there is not even a plan to meet the ongoing water supply problems in their village. Think of how that impacts a household. I spoke to a pensioner and was told that the electric showers no longer functioned due to the lack of pressure and the toilets in the home could not fill properly, making them impossible to flush consistently. The person has an autoimmune disease. In terms of gas heating in homes in Ballyhooly, low water pressure prevents gas boilers from functioning, leaving those homes without hot water and heating as we approach the winter. The water issues also impact on the pensioner’s cooking, laundry and dishwashing, as the utilities in the house are not able to work. The pensioner’s wife is also a pensioner and they are retired in the village. The pensioner told me that the pressure was so bad in the morning and evening that they were literally down to a drip or, sometimes, nothing at all. Planning was granted for another 40 houses over the wall from their home with no conditions applied regarding water quality. The pensioner asked me to ask Mr. Gleeson whether his shower works every morning. As an Oireachtas Member, I look at how Mr. Gleeson’s organisation has no plan to fix the village’s issues, yet Uisce Éireann recorded a profit of €329 million in the last calendar year. Uisce Éireann was created to streamline and improve the State’s capacity to fix water quality problems, so how is it running a profit of that much when Ballyhooly and dozens, if not hundreds, of other locations in the country do not even have a functioning water supply?