Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have no immediate plans to introduce such legislation, although, as I have indicated in the past, serious consideration is being given to the issue. I am aware of the long-standing wish of many Travellers that such status be granted, but there are some divergent views. I am also aware that the previous Government was of the view that Travellers were not an ethnic minority. Dialogue between staff of my Department and representatives of Traveller organisations has taken place in the past on the issue, for example, during the course of a seminar on the third State report under the Council of Europe Convention on National Minorities. In addition, earlier this year the National Traveller Monitoring and Advisory Committee, on which sit representatives of all the national Traveller organisations, as well as officials of the Department of Justice and Equality, established a sub-group specifically to consider the issue of Traveller ethnicity. Arising from the work of this group, among other things, a conference was held in Dublin Castle, supported by my Department. At this conference various aspects of the ethnicity subject were considered by a wide spectrum of opinion.

I remind the House that Travellers in Ireland have the same civil and political rights as other citizens under the Constitution. The key anti-discrimination measures, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977, the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts, specifically identify Travellers by name as a protected group. The Equality Act 2004 which transposed the EU racial equality directive, applied all of the protections of the directive across all of the nine grounds contained in the legislation, including the ground of membership of the Traveller community. All of the protections afforded to ethnic minorities in EU directives and international conventions apply to Travellers because the Irish legislation giving effect to these international instruments explicitly protects Travellers.

I inform the Deputy that consideration of this issue remains ongoing with a view to ensuring full analysis of all aspects of the granting of ethnic status to Travellers is available to the Government when coming to a decision on the matter. I expect to publish the report of the conference early in the new year.

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