Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)
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I join the other members in congratulating Deputy Lawlor on taking up the position of Cathaoirleach. I am glad to be a member of this committee. I was, like other members, previously a member of a local authority committee so I have some experience in that respect. The one takeaway I have from that is the importance of having good engagement with the Traveller community. We are not necessarily here to be a voice for Travellers. We need them to be a voice for themselves. We are fortunate to have Senator Flynn with us but we need to be broader than that as we cannot entirely rely on her to be that voice either. Critically, this is about engagement, which is the one takeaway I have from my time on the local authority committee. I hope we can do that as a committee. I will work co-operatively and collegially with all members to try to progress the key issues facing the Traveller community.