Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gcoiste agus, go háirithe, leis an Seanadóir Eileen Flynn as ucht na tuairisce seo atá an-tábhachtach. I take the opportunity to congratulate Dr. Sindy Joyce who is taking up her role as lecturer at the University of Limerick. They will be very lucky to have this outstanding academic put her particular and informed focus on Traveller, racial and ethnic studies. No more than in any part of our community where women take their place and use their voice, we can make the future better for everyone.

The report contains 84 recommendations, 18 of them relating to accommodation. I would like to speak from my experience as a councillor on Kildare County Council local Traveller accommodation consultative committee, LTACC. During my term on that committee, it was an all-women group of left-wing councillors who worked really well with the Travellers in our municipal districts. We worked hard to spend our allocation on a particular site we were working on but we could not. There was illness in the family, but in my experience the lack of urgency was the real illness that was deep at the heart of the official council level. Given my experience, I wholeheartedly recommend recommendation 74 that a national Traveller accommodation authority be established to oversee Traveller accommodation policy and have an input into the Traveller accommodation programme in each local authority. I would also like to see sanctions on local authorities that do not spend their allocation. We need accountability.

The Dáil recognised Traveller ethnicity and we must acknowledge the nomadic aspect of their culture. In terms of seasonal Travelling and meeting, it is beyond me how each county cannot designate an excellent facility where Travellers can come with the normal comforts of showers, electricity, bin collections, recycling etc. If we are willing to do this for settled people, I do not see why we cannot do it for Travellers. This was something I also put to the LTACC in Kildare County Council and he looked at me as if I had two heads. I am ready to put my name to this report and we need to act on it. Local authorities need to do their bit. In my experience it is not the elected councillors who stop this but the officials at local authority level and they have to be held accountable for that.

See this speech in context