Ms Carol Baxter:

-----but what I will say is that Traveller and Roma organisations' representatives repeatedly raise issues, particularly in relation to housing. They bring those issues to the attention of the relevant housing officials.

In terms of the Equal Start programme, which is under our own Department's auspices, one of the objectives is that ultimately there would be a level of participation of Traveller children in early learning and care that would reach the national average. That has been one of the reasons for the Equal Start programme. As the Deputy will be aware, Traveller and Roma children are a specific target group for Equal Start and the whole purpose is to provide additional supports to early learning and care providers so that they can engage more Traveller children and, indeed, Traveller families. We have recognised that Traveller families can be nervous about early learning and care. To that end, we have specific workers looking at the whole area of supporting Traveller families into early learning and care.

In terms of education, the link workers are Traveller focused because of the recognition that Traveller families can be nervous about engagement in the education sector. They themselves are typically Travellers and they can provide strong encouragement and support to Traveller families in terms of participation.

What the Deputy says about heritage is absolutely crucial. It is one of those areas where we as a Department are supporting a range of initiatives in co-operation. We referenced Traveller Pride Week and the work with the Heritage Council, but we are practically looking at a range of things, such as a commemorative postage stamp to commemorate Traveller ethnicity, recognising how important it is for a community to see themselves celebrated within Irish society.

Similarly, on employment, we have referenced the internship programme. We are very excited about that. There is quite strong interest from Traveller young people in going forward for those jobs. For the first time, there is the possibility of those interns being able to compete to be made permanent in the Civil Service. That is a great opportunity, but we are using a range of opportunities to support the work on employment, including the Department's funding of a special initiative for Travellers. This initiative is a long-standing programme of seven projects to support employment for Travellers and we are working to expand that to 14. Similarly, in terms of Tusla, which also is under the Department's auspices, it has a bursary to support Traveller young people in terms of careers in social care and social work. Four young people are being supported in that this year alone.

In terms of employment, an employment sub-group is led by the Department of Social Protection. They are the co-ordinators. There is a Traveller representative, Michael Power, who chairs thabt sucommittee. It is a whole-of-government response, with individual Departments responsible for individual actions, but where we feel we can add value we are both working as co-ordinators but also funding specific projects. Obviously, the crucial point is that it is a whole-of-government response.