Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. In the limited time available, I wish to focus on two important issues. The first is that we provide money for Traveller-specific accommodation.

6 o’clock

The problem is that under our current system, we can bring the horse to water but we cannot make it drink. The reality is that in many local authority areas, including one very close to me, the local authority is not drawing the money down despite it being available and is not making the hard decisions because there is local opposition. It is very hard to get a Part 8 and where it involves voluntary housing, they stop it because they will not sell the land.

One thing that could be done in 2018 is to change the law if necessary to take responsibility for making decisions about Traveller-specific housing away from local authority members and give it to An Bord Pleanála, where most issues wind up anyway. The Minister of State knows that when it involves the local authority, the reality is that members must vote and that just does not happen in some local authorities. It is non-functional.

The other issue is employment. It is interesting when we look at education because it is one place where significant improvement was made between 2000 and 2017. The percentage of those with the junior certificate has gone from 9% to 39% while the percentage with the leaving certificate has gone from virtually 0% to 16%. The percentage at third level is 5% between postgraduate, undergraduate degree, diploma and other third level. That is a great improvement from nothing. It is small but it is an improvement. However, we are not translating that into the workplace. The State should ensure that quotas are put aside to ensure that Travellers are incorporated in the public service and Civil Service. The social change that would bring about would be immense because the more we integrate people into the mainframe of society, the more the pace of change will accelerate, everybody will have a better life and the community will feel more included in Irish society.

See this speech in context