Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On behalf of the Green Party, I am so pleased for the people here that we have reached this day. One of the core Green principles is that in diversity there is great strength and richness. We are celebrating our Irish diversity here today and that is something that brings great joy.

If one thinks about it, it is shameful that it has taken us this long. God help us. The British courts and political system managed to do it about 15 years ago. This is something that concerns the State, as well as the Traveller community. I was reading about that judgment when the British courts were considering this matter. They said there were two questions that define ethnicity. First, if it is shown that there is a long, shared history of which the group is conscious, it distinguishes it from other groups and keeps that memory alive. Second, it is ethnicity if there is a cultural tradition of its own, including family and social customs and manners often, but not necessarily, associated with religious observance.

This is an important day for the State because that ethnicity always existed under those categories. It was always held among the Traveller community in their own hearts, a sense of identity and cultural connections. The State had to come to that understanding and recognition, and as a result we are better off today in recognising that diversity.

I commend the Minister of State, Deputy David Stanton, and those on the former Joint Committee on Justice and Equality. He handed the baton on to Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin. Thanks to the work of all parties here we have got this over the line. The committee has done some good in recent years, but this is the highlight in the career of all those involved.

In recognising Irish diversity, I am interested in how that ethnicity, culture and connection goes back into the mists of time. It connects to something that is very Irish. It is true that in many ways all of us are travelling people. This goes right back into Irish mythology through reading the first records of travellers' lives. We have an underlying sense that we do not quite own the land. We are a people who have come to the land and have ourselves travelled all over the world, moving back and forth.

There is a richness that comes to this country from having a Traveller community which maintains a sense of connection to this land.

That is a richness that the Traveller ethnicity, in the Travelling community, brings to all of us. There is a real value in that resourcefulness in the Traveller community, in that ability, as they travel to work, to fix things or to have a different relationship in terms of using, keeping, storing and recycling objects. There was, and still is, a long tradition of that craft in the Traveller community. We could all learn a thing or two from it.

As I understand, the Traveller community also has a strong tradition of faith and a certain faithfulness that I think, again, brings us back to a different relationship with this land. From Lady's Well on the south-west coast of Wexford or to Croagh Patrick, where anyone who has climbed it on that August Reek day knows and fully understands this cultural tradition, it is there before them. It is still a strong connection point to our history on this island and to our deepest roots, but it is held in the strongest way in the Traveller community, which enriches us all.

I was taken with what Deputy Gerry Adams mentioned about culture and the various musicians. I have a particular interest in Donegal traditional fiddle music. I remember once being brought out on what was pretty much a whole week lesson on the great John Doherty, who had such influence on Altan and others and on the actual heart of Donegal music. We were brought to every place John Doherty had ever been, up and down the roads out of Glenties, Ardara and around. It was only at the end of the week someone mentioned the fact that actually he was a Traveller. There was such a deep and utter connection, a respect and a sense of that being a heart and cornerstone of Irish music. He, and that tradition, belonged to all the music community. We were recognising that he was a Traveller and that was part of where his musicality was coming from. It came from a respect for it. It was a part of something we could all treasure and benefit from as he passed on his tunes.

We need, as so many people have said here today, to move on from this historic day for the State and for the Traveller community and start reflecting the diversity. There are different ways of housing people. We need to provide different ways of housing people. What Deputy Ruth Coppinger said about Fingal County Council would be matched by anyone who has experience in county councils, certainly around the city that I grew up in. We have discrimination against Travellers on a consistent basis and we need to stop that. We need to change our ways and start thinking of housing and supporting housing with a whole range of flexible options, recognising that diversity is important and that it is good to serve it.

We need to do the same in our education system. God knows our education system needs reform. It seems impossible to get reform. It seems to be stuck. We need to encourage and make sure that it is not just 55% of Traveller students who stay on right to the end of secondary school. We need to get up beyond the 1% going on to third level education. Perhaps in doing and achieving that we could change the entire education system in a way that would benefit us all.

More than anything else we need to look at our judicial system. In my experience, during any time I have spent in the courts for various reasons, with the police or around the whole judicial system, there has been such a sense of a disconnect between our judicial system and the Traveller people. There was an almighty sense of two cultures that were not understanding each other and were not accommodating each other. In our courts and in our policing we got it wrong. Let us use this as a point to change how we police. We are looking at our police service currently. We are looking at our courts and that connection. Surely we can celebrate our diversity by thinking in different ways about the connection between the two communities so that we police and administer justice in a clever way that recognises the diversity of cultures in our country.

As I said, today is a great day for the Traveller community, for the people here and for the people who are unfortunately out in the rain outside. It is also a great day for the State and for thanking the Traveller community for giving us its ethnicity to make Ireland a richer, better place.

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