Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Seanadóir Eileen Flynn agus gabhaim buíochas leis an gcoiste as an obair atá déanta ar an tuairisc seo freisin. I thank the committee for its report. When we talk about the issues affecting the Traveller community, many people are shocked to learn of the stark realities facing it. It is good to see the volume of statistics presented so clearly in this report. I will refer to some of them. Suicide is the cause of 11% of deaths in the Travelling community, which is an incredible figure. According to information supplied to the committee by the Department of Health, the mortality rate for respiratory diseases is 7.5 times higher among male Travellers than it is in the general population and it is 5.4 times higher among female Travellers.

This report also shows significant differentials in mortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease and health issues in general. The Irish College of General Practitioners reports that, per 1,000 live births, the infant mortality rate in the general population is 3.9, whereas among Travellers it is 14.1, which is absolutely shocking and a terrible indictment of what is happening in this society.

When it comes to mental health, is it any wonder the situation is so dire? The State has in recent years undertaken a concerted effort to stop Travellers from travelling. In 1963 we had the Commission on Itinerancy, which recommended assimilation of Travellers into the settled community. In 1983 we had the Report of the Travelling People Review Body, which reported on the integration of Travellers into mainstream society but without properly recognising, supporting or promoting their cultural identity. Then we had the housing Act of 1992 and the Roads Acts in the following years. Those Acts allowed local authorities to remove Travellers from their camps at the roadside. These are just some of the examples of the way in which the State has systematically tried to stop Travellers from travelling and to force them into housing. This was a direct and concerted attack on Traveller culture. Internationally, human rights abuses against minorities typically follow the same trend. A minority is discriminated against and told they must become more like us if they are to be welcomed and included in society. We in Aontú oppose this narrative wholeheartedly. Travellers should be made to feel welcome and included in our country, society and democracy, and there should be no preconditions whatsoever to that inclusivity. For years this State, through its laws and practices, has suggested that Travellers can be included in society only if they abandon their culture, and it is time we recognised that this is absolutely wrong.

I have heard some fantastic speeches today, but speeches mean nothing unless there are changes in society. I point especially to local authorities. All the political parties represented here have influence over what is happening on local authorities throughout the country. In recent years, I have done a lot of work looking at the funds that are spent on Traveller accommodation in each local authority around the country. It is amazing that, at a time of housing crisis, many local authorities, year after year, have returned that funding to central government in Dublin. I cannot understand how in a housing crisis there can be local authorities continuously returning funds to Dublin. That has changed recently, and I had hoped that change would be positive. The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage has taken over that role in the Department, and the system is such that there is a central pot of money provided by the Government and local authorities can extract that money for Traveller accommodation. However, now it is impossible, through freedom of information request or parliamentary question, to find out which local authorities are sending that money back and not drawing it down. There is a problem with the culture on certain county and city councils where councillors do not want to engage on the topic of Traveller accommodation because they see it as divisive. That shows cowardice on the part of some politicians who clearly want to keep their seats and feel there is an electoral cost to providing money to Traveller families for homes. In Galway, we saw tensions build so much that some people set fire to a house that had been designated for a Traveller family. After that incident, some of the politicians who were involved in stirring up that hatred went scrambling from that campaign pretty quickly. It takes hatred to strike a match in that regard. What happened was utterly shameful. I commend Deputy Ó Cuív, who stood up very strongly against that hatred and stood with the Delaney family.

I do not have long left to speak but I wish to remember a friend of mine, Michael McDonagh, who died recently. Michael was a tireless advocate of Travellers' rights. He was a founder and manager of Meath Travellers Workshop, and the contribution he made to society was huge, from helping Travellers engage with education to helping families who were struggling with life. He was an absolute gentleman and will be sorely missed in Navan and the wider Meath area. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nell and his children. I know that Michael would have agreed with the key point that we need to improve the life experiences of Travellers but that we should do so in a way that does not mean they have to abandon their culture. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

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