Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome tonight's debate, in particular the focus, attention and the contribution by Deputy Mac Lochlainn, who has been to the forefront of advocating on behalf of Travellers long before he got elected to this Chamber. Despite the fact that it might not be very popular in some areas he has never shirked his responsibilities to confront the racist views that are held by a minority.

I extend my sympathy to the Connors, Gilbert and Lynch families who lost loved ones in the Carrickmines tragedy, and to the wider Traveller community. We should be honest and say that a Bill supporting Travellers' rights is not going to be universally popular. There is a deep, ingrained ignorance throughout every class of society when it comes to Travellers and their rights. That bigotry must be faced head on. It must not be mollycoddled, excused, tolerated or even encouraged. It is a fact that some politicians have stooped to the lowest level in scapegoating or attacking the Traveller community. It should be a statement of intent that we would say that we will not tolerate that type of behaviour within our own ranks. We had a terrible situation in my constituency where a house that was being purchased by the local authority for a Traveller family was burnt down. A senior politician in the county said Travellers should live in isolation from the rest of the settled community. A Fine Gael councillor weighed in to support him and said that as far as he was concerned they should all be sent to Spike Island. When Deputy Dara Calleary was asked on the "Tonight with Vincent Browne" show to condemn the comments made by Seán McEniff, he refused to do so. Instead, he excused them and said it was a personal opinion. We should send a clear message that that is not acceptable.

On reading Deputy Mac Lochlainn's motion I hoped that all sides could support it and send out a positive message on behalf of the people to the Traveller community. Instead, the Government has proposed a counter-motion which strips the motion of the positive message. Instead, we have a reiteration of the kicking the can down the road attitude on which the State always relies when Travellers' rights comes up. There is nothing new in the counter-motion. There is no sign of a new commitment to equality for our fellow citizens from Labour or Fine Gael. We must compare that to the positive suggestions in the Sinn Féin motion which, in terms of Traveller accommodation, calls on the Government to amend the Twenty-six Counties' Planning and Development Act to make the Traveller accommodation programme a mandatory consideration for planning permission. It proposes that funding for local authorities should be based on how good their track record is in providing Traveller accommodation. It proposes that the National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee should be empowered to take charge of providing Traveller accommodation with an annual budget and targets. Those are practical suggestions which have the potential to prevent another tragedy. They are suggestions designed to ensure that Traveller programmes work for Travellers.

The Traveller community is an all-Ireland one and that should be reflected in policy making. That is the reason the motion calls for an all-Ireland forum involving Travellers and the settled community, including representatives of political parties, central government, local authorities, health and education sectors and representatives of media organisations. This forum should review the way Travellers are treated in society and by the State. The forum should be empowered to put forward policies that make the State live up to its obligations under international law and international conventions.

The significant cuts to Traveller programmes must be addressed. They speak for themselves. A total of €30.7 million has been cut in funding for Traveller programmes since 2010. Since 2000 the accommodation budget reduced from €70 million to €4.3 million this year. The question must be asked whether Travellers created the economic collapse or if they are just easy victims, the soft touch, in the eyes of the State.

I note the recent media commentary on a number of local authorities that did not even apply to draw down funding for Traveller accommodation programmes. I wish to put on record that Donegal County Council did not receive any allocation from the Department but it did apply for funding. It applied for €240,000 in February of this year for four or five programmes but to date has not received any funding yet issues exist that require to be addressed. Traveller communities talk about the need to prevent other tragedies. For example, emergency sites are in place for eight to nine years and other related issues must be resolved. I urge the Government to ensure funding is made available to Donegal County Council in order that it can continue to deal with the issues that present in Donegal.

Sinn Féin's manifesto, policies and principles will always put Traveller rights front and centre, regardless of whether it is popular to do so. We will do it because it is the right thing to do. We will challenge every party to commit to doing that, and to end the tolerance for party representatives who take up anti-Traveller positions for the sake of votes. That is a message we should all send out tonight. The next person to take what he or she perceives to be a popular position in his or her community and attacks or stigmatises the Traveller community has no place in the political party system.

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