Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We know that local authorities probably will not spend all the money this year and next year. Is there any way of sanctioning them because what is happening is a form of racism? Representatives of the Traveller groups came before the justice committee two weeks in a row and the main point is still Traveller ethnicity. They said that a national policy is something that should be a right for Travellers and not something that has to be demanded and that failure to do the latter means that this Government has no obligation to fully recognise Travellers' distinct difference in terms of accommodation requirements. Travellers are a nomadic tribe and we are not providing the type of halting site accommodation that many of them seek. We brought in laws in 1993 and again in 2000 that were racist in nature because the only ones that suffered as a result of them were Travellers who could not go onto a piece of land with a caravan or set up on the side of the road. One of Travellers told us that they did not have a homelessness problem 15 years ago because they could go anywhere. They have a huge homelessness problem now because they cannot go where they want to go and the houses are not available for them either.

See this speech in context