Dáil debates

Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Travellers' Rights: Motion [Private Members]

 

10:05 pm

Photo of Niall CollinsNiall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, for tabling this motion concerning Travellers. On my behalf and that of Fianna Fáil, I extend our sympathy to the Lynch, Gilbert and Connors families following the recent tragic losses at Carrickmines. I am sure the relatives of those who died and the community in Carrickmines are still suffering grievously in the wake of the enormous loss of life in the tragedy. Everyone in the country was shocked at and numbed by this terrible event. They felt for the families, as did I.

Fianna Fáil is committed to the rights of Travellers and believes the Traveller and settled communities must work together. We all live in the real world and have to recognise that both sides have rights and obligations. Like many other Deputies and public representatives, I represent Travellers week in, week out. I deal with them in my clinics, as does everyone else. There is a significant Traveller community in my constituency in County Limerick. We help them with everyday issues, as we do the settled community. These issues include those relating to social welfare, education and health. Both communities face the same issues and challenges and the same service and help is afforded them, which is an obligation on all public representatives.

In April 2014, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality called on the State to recognise Traveller ethnicity. I am a member of that committee and I subscribed to and support the report, as did the Acting Chairman, Deputy Corcoran Kennedy. The committee recommended that the Government should write to the relevant international bodies confirming that the State recognises the ethnicity of the Traveller community. It further recommended that the Government build on various initiatives and commence a time-limited dialogue with the Traveller representative groups about new legislation or amendments to existing legislation that was required. It was disappointing that the then chair of Fine Gael, Deputy Charlie Flanagan, disagreed with the recommendation that Travellers are Irish like the rest of us. That did not serve any constructive contribution to the debate.

The then Irish Human Rights Commission submitted that "Traveller ethnicity is essentially a legal reality that the State is bound by, irrespective of any formal act of recognition". The commission recommended that a statement be made by the Taoiseach or the Minister for Justice and Equality, on the record of Dáil Éireann, recognising the Irish Traveller Community as an ethnic group within the State. I support that recommendation and call on the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice and Equality to comply with it. We should have a session in the Dáil to discuss the statement. The commission also stated, "At an international level the State could confirm to relevant international human rights bodies that it accepts that Travellers are an ethnic group under the relevant legal frameworks, and continue this practice through its State Reports as they arise."It further stated, "At a legal level clarification in the law, such as the equality legislation, that Travellers are an ethnic minority could be a useful precedent, and would remove any doubt as regards the legal protection the State affords to this vulnerable community." The commission went on to state:

At a deeper level, it would be recommended that the State communicate its recognition to the Traveller community. Of course recognition must go beyond mere rhetoric, and the State's engagement with the Traveller community must be fully informed by its human rights obligations regarding that community as an ethnic minority in the State, in seeking to ensure the human rights of Travellers, which the State consistently asserts that it seeks to achieve. At a practical level ... this may require the State to consider carefully those aspects of law and policy that have a disproportionate negative impact on the Traveller community with a view to their removal.

Fianna Fáil - as do I - supports the Irish Human Rights Commission's statements and the move towards formal recognition of Traveller ethnicity.

We must remind ourselves of some of the groups and committees that sat over the past 20 years and the decisions and legislation which flowed from this House as a result. It would be useful to have a proper analysis of how legislation and various committee reports impacted, both positively and negatively, on the Traveller community. We have had lots of legislation and reports. Some of them were good and some were well-intended. Some, however, did not have a positive effect despite the intent. This needs to be examined.

The Equal Status Act 2000, of which we are all aware, was introduced to protect against discrimination outside the employment field. The Traveller health unit was established in 2004. Local authorities have often been mentioned during the debate. We had the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 and the Planning and Development Act 2000. The Part V obligation of the 2000 Act provided for a social dividend in terms of housing for local authorities, which includes housing for the Traveller community. Unfortunately, in many instances local authorities up and down the country took cash in lieu of provision of Part V housing units. We need to examine that situation and see what can be learned from the shortcomings in the legislation.

The tone of the debate has not been political, nor should it be, but during those years local authorities were controlled by various political parties. My party had the least level of control over them because it was in a minority on most authorities during those years. That situation changed in the local elections last year. Local authorities are to blame and all the political parties represented in this House which are also represented on local authorities have played a part in not implementing the county Traveller accommodation programmes. The parties in question also played a part in local authorities taking cash payments from developers in lieu of the provision of housing units to meet Part V obligations.

There was a national Traveller consultative committee which ran parallel with the local Traveller accommodation consultative committees. We need to study the work of those committees to see what they came up with that was good and what they came up with that was not.

The concept of social partnership has been ongoing in this country for some time. We have had various programmes over the years. The trade union movement has been involved in social partnership with different Governments. The programme for prosperity and fairness, which ran from 2000 to 2002, committed to monitoring and evaluating the efforts to meet Traveller accommodation. The next social partnership programme, sustaining progress, which ran from 2003 to 2005, underlined the need to pursue an equality agenda for all minority groups and Travellers. We need to do an impact analysis of all the social partnership programmes and how they either positively or negatively impacted on the Traveller community.

It is incumbent on us, as a society, to recognise the identity of the Traveller community and those who want to remain in it. There are challenges and obligations. All of us, as citizens of this country, have an obligation to live and abide by the law. Some of the narrative which is unfairly levelled at the door of the Traveller community is exceptionally unwarranted. People in the Traveller community have to abide by the law, as do the rest of us.

Unfortunately, some of the narrative emerging from debates recently is exceptionally weighted against the Traveller community, without any evidence or facts to support the narrative being spun against members of that community. This is important for all public representatives throughout the country, including public representatives within my party, in all other parties and, indeed, of no party. People look to their public representatives for leadership and guidance, and we have an obligation and a role to fulfil in terms of harmonising both communities.

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