Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I welcome everybody who has come to the Visitors Gallery today from the various organisations. It is great that everyone is here. I also welcome this comprehensive report on the Traveller community. Senator Flynn, as chairperson of the committee, has done a marvellous job in the committee. She has been outstanding. In addition, the members of the committee have been very good across the board. The commitment to make this report possible has been massive and everybody has had a major input into it. I thank all those who made submissions to the committee. We had a very broad range of submissions from across the community, local authorities, Departments and groups and organisations as diverse as sporting organisations, the Prison Service, community activists and medical organisations and, most important, the Traveller organisations and their community.

The voice of Travellers is rarely heard and rarely given a platform to express Travellers' concerns. This committee has given members of the Traveller community a great opportunity to have a voice and to have a part in what is being produced. The number of Traveller organisations that actively engaged with the committee is impressive. They gave us a great insight into the difficulties that the community faces each day. They were articulate in explaining their concerns and outlining what needs to be done for their community.

This report follows other reports from previous years. There are recommendations and observations in this report that are not necessarily new. They have appeared in previous reports but were never acted on. That is a real concern. Good work has been done previously, but we found in our discussions with Traveller groups that the concerns they expressed in previous years still pertain today. My hope is that the recommendations in this report will be fully implemented and followed up.

We witnessed at first hand many of the issues in the different areas. We visited various sites, such as Carrowbrowne in Galway, Spring Lane in Cork and St. Margaret's and Labre Park in Dublin. I am more familiar with St. Margaret's and the halting site in St. Joseph's Park in Finglas. The concerns I have seen in the halting sites in my constituency of Dublin North-West mirror the concerns throughout the country. On occasions, it was very depressing to see some of the conditions and the problems facing the Traveller community. We have to admit as a society that discrimination still exists. It is common for many Traveller families and individuals to encounter discrimination daily. That is totally unacceptable.

There are 84 recommendations in this report. It is up to us as public representatives and members of the Traveller community and of the community to push these recommendations and force the Government to act. This is a very worthwhile report and I hope we get full support across the board.

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