Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is the type of politics that people do not often see or comment on enough. It shows the positive side of this House, whereby a piece of progressive legislation is presented by the Opposition, in this case by Deputy Pringle following on from the work of former Senator Kelleher, and is accepted and supported by Government in an attempt to advance and improve the lives of a particularly vulnerable group. I thank the Minister for supporting the Bill.

In respect of Irish politics, I would also say that we should be thankful that we do not have a mainstream political party in Ireland that plays the race card. Every other European country has one, but we do not. There are individual politicians who say stupid, ignorant things at election time. However, no mainstream political party to date has played the race card or the anti-immigrant card, outside of a referendum in 2004. We should cling to that and build on it.

What every child, person and human is looking for is a sense of belonging, to feel significant, wanted and needed. In the history of this State, we often undertook an experiment of sameness, where we presented, through our education system, an experience of Irishness that made many children feel that they did not belong, were not needed and were not significant. I know of people in my community who were brutalised for the sin of playing soccer. I know that middle Ireland feels a little dismissive about the idea of a community that gets excited about disco dancing instead of Irish dancing. Generations of young people were taught by Christian Brothers who were, in many instances, deeply unhappy people. They were teaching in parts of the country that they did not want to be in and teaching children they did not understand. They were teaching a language, in the Irish language, that was completely alien to the experience of the children they were teaching. Within all that, we now have potential, through this Bill, to empower, enrich and lift every child with the experience of our Traveller people.

I played a part in the recognition of Traveller ethnicity. As has been mentioned, it was a proud day in 2017 when the ethnicity was recognised of people who exist as part of this nation.

The Minister mentioned in her speech that she felt the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 was progressive.

It is but there is a provision in it that I hope she will agree needs to be amended. It provides for 25% of places to be kept for the children and grandchildren of past pupils. The problem for the Traveller community is that this would affect it disproportionately because if a child's father or mother did not go to secondary school, he or she would compete for the places at a disadvantage. I hope the Minister will support the Labour Party amendment to that Bill at some stage, as she said she will.

In trying to seek significance or belonging, the power of having your culture and who you are reflected within the education system is incredibly emotional. It is incredibly emotional for a young person to feel he or she belongs. It is difficult for young persons to come to terms with the fact that they do not belong because of who they are and that there is nothing they can do about it. This causes internal frustration and anger and starts a lifelong quest for belonging that can sometimes be obtained in destructive or negative ways. With this Bill, we have an opportunity to change radically how we approach our education system. I impress on the Minister the necessity of having a teaching profession that reflects the children the teachers are teaching. We should have more teachers from Traveller, immigrant, working-class, disadvantaged and disability backgrounds so every child will feel significant and wanted and that he or she belongs.

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