Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Society in the North has been on a journey from conflict to peace, and it is the responsibility of all political leaders to help to complete that journey. It is clearly not a task for a hurler on the ditch like the leader of Fianna Fáil. I wish he would do everyone a service and for once engage positively on the North and the necessary process across this island.

Today, I attended the funerals of Willie Lynch and Tara Gilbert, of their children, Kelsey and Jodie, and their unborn baby, and of Jimmy Lynch, all victims of a fire that killed ten citizens in the Travellers' halting site in Carrickmines. There were widespread expressions of sympathy after that, which provided some hope that the treatment of Travellers, not just in terms of housing, could begin being addressed in a serious way. Unfortunately, that hope was dented by the familiar negative attitudes as attempts were made to rehouse the families of the Carrickmines victims.

This underlines the need for a fundamental review of the treatment of Travellers and their community in Irish society, which should be Government-led. In the past seven years, funding for Traveller accommodation has been cut by 93%. Some 1,536 families are in overcrowded or unsafe conditions. Many Travellers have no access to basic facilities such as sanitation, water and electricity. They fare badly on all key indicators of disadvantage, including unemployment, poverty, health, infant mortality, life expectancy and education. At the root of all of this are the prejudice, discrimination and social exclusion experienced by these citizens. Public representatives of political parties in this Chamber have campaigned against the housing of Traveller families in their constituencies.

I have raised this matter with the Taoiseach a number of times. Will he consider establishing a genuinely island-wide forum at a State level with a Northern appendix as a matter of great urgency, involving Travellers, political parties, the Government, local authorities, the health and education sectors and media organisations, which would make recommendations on how this major issue of inequality could be tackled and addressed.

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