John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Finian McGrath and Ellis for raising this matter to which I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, who, because of other business commitments, is unable to be present.

The shocking incident in which a house at Parkhill, Ballyshannon was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Monday, 11 February is of great concern to the Minister and, I do not doubt, to every Member of this House. The Minister understands that the house was completely engulfed by flames and that gardaí were obliged to evacuate a number of other houses in the vicinity. Thankfully, it appears that no one was injured. However, this incident clearly had the potential to give rise to a tragic and possibly fatal outcome. The Minister wishes to pay tribute to the Garda and fire service personnel who responded very effectively to this emergency incident. He is well aware of the suggestion that the fire may have been started deliberately and might have been the result of an anti-Traveller attack. Needless to say, the Minister and the Government would condemn acts of this nature without reservation. Anyone motivated by discriminatory and racist attitudes should be aware that all illegal actions will be met with the full force of the law.

The current position is that the incident is under investigation by An Garda Síochána. The Deputies will appreciate that it would be inappropriate to comment in any more detail on the progress of that investigation. We need to allow the Garda the space and time to do its job. In the event that the investigation indicates that the fire was the result of a criminal act, the Minister has every confidence that the matter will be pursued by the Garda in a thorough and fully professional manner. On behalf of the Minister, I appeal to anyone who has any information which might be of assistance to the Garda to come forward.

The commitment of An Garda Síochána to tackling racially-motivated crime is underlined by the work of the Garda racial, intercultural and diversity office, GRIDO, the services of which are available to any person who believes a crime to be motivated by discriminatory or racist attitudes. In such cases, the office will assist victims as well as the investigating gardaí in order to ensure that all incidents will receive appropriate attention. The GRIDO also monitors crimes which have a racist motivation on a continual basis to ensure that all such crimes are properly recorded and investigated.

The Minister is aware of course that issues relating to the accommodation of members of the Traveller community have been brought into the debate on this matter. Travellers in Ireland have, under the Constitution, the same civil and political rights as others. Those rights include access to public services such as local authority accommodation. All the protections afforded to ethnic minorities under EU directives and international conventions apply to members of the Traveller community. This is because the domestic legislation which gives effect to these international instruments - the Equality Acts, the Unfair Dismissals Acts and the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act - explicitly protect members of that community.

Government policy in respect of the accommodation of members of the Traveller community is implemented through the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998. Under this Act, all relevant local authorities are obliged to adopt and implement multi-annual Traveller accommodation programmes, with the aim of improving the rate of provision of accommodation for members of the Traveller community. Over many years, significant funding has been made available for the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation. The Minister wishes to assure the Deputies that there is no question of the Government entertaining any suggestions that members of the Traveller community should be regarded as anything less than equal participants in modern Irish society.

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