Ms Sandra McDonagh:

Absolutely. On the Senator's first question, there is huge interest in the social work apprenticeship but the problem is that it is in Cork. The number of Travellers in other areas who will go that far is limited. They have to travel to Cork. There is expense with that and everything else. We had a couple of local people who were very interested in doing it but when they had to attend University College Cork, that was an issue. If it was made more national and if it was rolled out in that way, it would be more widely availed of.

I agree that there is fear and mistrust. It all boils down to years ago, when Travellers recognised the social worker as the cruelty man. It goes back to that. It is hard to get Travellers to see the good in the work that can be done. I suppose they see social workers just as coming in to remove children. It is a question of moving past that. We are getting there, I suppose, in Offaly. I am a social worker and we have another social worker in situ. It is normal now in Offaly, I suppose. We can move past that, but there is a huge fear across the country.