Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this matter, the burning of a Traveller family's home in County Donegal. This horrific attack was an appalling act in itself but it also highlights the terrible discrimination against Travellers in this country. The deafening silence in this House and from most of the political parties demonstrates once again the hostility that exists towards Travellers. We cannot praise President Obama or open pubs in his honour while at the same time staying silent about blatant racism and discrimination in our own country. Ku Klux Klan activities such as this incident in which a home was burned must be challenged. Staying silent when a house provided to a family is burned down should never be an option.

Local politicians who stoked up this issue must be challenged and dealt with by their political masters. Racism and discrimination should never be tolerated in any democratic or inclusive society. The Donegal Fianna Fáil councillor Seán McEniff stirred it up in the beginning when he said that Travellers should live in their own communities away from settled people. That is a disgraceful statement. I challenge all the leaders of political parties and all public representatives to stand up for the civil rights of Travellers and not to fudge the issue when dealing with their own members who act in a disgraceful manner. Apartheid was wrong in the past and it is still wrong today to treat a minority in such a way. The Fine Gael councillor Eugene Dolan from Ballyshannon, a former mayor of the town, said that Travellers could be sent to Spike Island for all he cared.

We need to face the fact that Travellers are experiencing higher levels of mortality. Life expectancy for Travellers is 11 years lower for women and 15 years lower for men than in the settled community. This has not changed since 1987. This is not the case for the settled community. Travellers also suffer with mental and physical health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular conditions and have higher rates of suicide. That is the real world for Traveller families. We need to focus on these health inequalities among marginalised groups such as Travellers. I urge the Minister to take action against those who are stirring up this issue.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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Ireland is proud of its place in the world. It is a nation, almost alone in Europe, which since the first formation of its nationhood has owned no slaves, colonised no land, divided no peoples. This is only half of Ireland's story. Ireland has a great shame that it denies. The great stain on this nation's character is the grave mistreatment of a small but significant population of Irish people who are members of the Traveller community. Travellers are regarded by a large proportion of the population as being acceptable targets for hatred, derision, slurs and discrimination. The slurs directed at the Traveller community are commonplace among all sections of Irish society just as the N-word would have been in the white society of Mississippi in the 1960s.

This casual hatred is no different from racism - I accept that it relates to Irish people of a unique and distinctive ethnicity - and it infects our culture. Although passive in most individuals, it gives cover, comfort and inspiration to those who wish to do physical harm.

On Sunday night a number of cowards filled with hatred set out to burn to the ground the home allocated to a family with ten children. They did so having failed to force Donegal County Council to refuse to house the family in question purely because its members are Travellers. I commend Donegal County Council and others, such as that in Kilkenny, which have not bent to pressure in the context of attending to the housing rights of citizens. Those to whom I refer carried out this heinous act in the aftermath of comments made by two councillors in the area. The comments in question can only be branded as being anti-Traveller and racist. Councillor Sean McEniff stated that members of the Traveller community should be sent to Spike Island and that they should be housed in isolation or segregated. Councillor Eugene Dolan backed up the comments made by his colleague. To date, no actions of censure have been taken against these individuals who are supposed to be leaders in their communities and who represent two of the parties in this House. It is shameful that Deputy Martin and the Taoiseach did not take action in respect of the comments made by the councillors in question.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy must conclude. I will return to him when the Minister of State has replied.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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There have been cases of judges making horrible and derogatory comments about members of the Traveller community and using terms such as the K-word to describe them in open court. I use the latter term because using the actual word for which it is substituted is no less heinous than using the N-word.

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputies Finian McGrath and Ellis for raising this matter to which I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Shatter, who, because of other business commitments, is unable to be present.

The shocking incident in which a house at Parkhill, Ballyshannon was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Monday, 11 February is of great concern to the Minister and, I do not doubt, to every Member of this House. The Minister understands that the house was completely engulfed by flames and that gardaí were obliged to evacuate a number of other houses in the vicinity. Thankfully, it appears that no one was injured. However, this incident clearly had the potential to give rise to a tragic and possibly fatal outcome. The Minister wishes to pay tribute to the Garda and fire service personnel who responded very effectively to this emergency incident. He is well aware of the suggestion that the fire may have been started deliberately and might have been the result of an anti-Traveller attack. Needless to say, the Minister and the Government would condemn acts of this nature without reservation. Anyone motivated by discriminatory and racist attitudes should be aware that all illegal actions will be met with the full force of the law.

The current position is that the incident is under investigation by An Garda Síochána. The Deputies will appreciate that it would be inappropriate to comment in any more detail on the progress of that investigation. We need to allow the Garda the space and time to do its job. In the event that the investigation indicates that the fire was the result of a criminal act, the Minister has every confidence that the matter will be pursued by the Garda in a thorough and fully professional manner. On behalf of the Minister, I appeal to anyone who has any information which might be of assistance to the Garda to come forward.

The commitment of An Garda Síochána to tackling racially-motivated crime is underlined by the work of the Garda racial, intercultural and diversity office, GRIDO, the services of which are available to any person who believes a crime to be motivated by discriminatory or racist attitudes. In such cases, the office will assist victims as well as the investigating gardaí in order to ensure that all incidents will receive appropriate attention. The GRIDO also monitors crimes which have a racist motivation on a continual basis to ensure that all such crimes are properly recorded and investigated.

The Minister is aware of course that issues relating to the accommodation of members of the Traveller community have been brought into the debate on this matter. Travellers in Ireland have, under the Constitution, the same civil and political rights as others. Those rights include access to public services such as local authority accommodation. All the protections afforded to ethnic minorities under EU directives and international conventions apply to members of the Traveller community. This is because the domestic legislation which gives effect to these international instruments - the Equality Acts, the Unfair Dismissals Acts and the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act - explicitly protect members of that community.

Government policy in respect of the accommodation of members of the Traveller community is implemented through the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998. Under this Act, all relevant local authorities are obliged to adopt and implement multi-annual Traveller accommodation programmes, with the aim of improving the rate of provision of accommodation for members of the Traveller community. Over many years, significant funding has been made available for the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation. The Minister wishes to assure the Deputies that there is no question of the Government entertaining any suggestions that members of the Traveller community should be regarded as anything less than equal participants in modern Irish society.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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The Minister of State indicated that there is no question of the Government entertaining any suggestions that members of the Traveller community should be regarded as anything less than equal participants in modern Irish society. Many of the members of that community to whom I talk and with whom I deal on a daily basis are of the view that this is not the case. They believe that people do not take them seriously when they raise particular issues.

In the context of action being taken, a further three houses belonging to Traveller families have been burned down. Those families were genuinely on the housing list. Nobody has yet been charged in respect of the commission of these three horrendous crimes. I ask the Minister of State to ensure that action will be taken to protect these citizens and to uphold their rights. Will his party be taking action in respect of the comments made by some of its local councillors who have been involved in stirring up emotions in respect of this issue? The actions of those individuals have led to some of these attacks taking place. There is no point in Fine Gael washing its hands of this issue. People are stirring up emotions and then other misguided individuals become involved and commit acts of violence. That is completely unacceptable.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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The incident such as that which happened in Donegal should be viewed in the same light as racism. I am aware of another incident in my constituency involving people who were walking home to a refugee centre. On four different occasions cars drove by them and objects were thrown. This type of incident can lead to something much worse. Is there any way we can strengthen our anti-hate laws in order that we might address this matter? Time should be made available for a full debate on issues relating to the Traveller community in the Dáil. Traveller Pride Week takes place each year. We should invite members of the community to come to the Dáil for a day and we should see to it that a debate on Traveller issues will also take place in the Seanad.

There are a number of examples relating to how badly members of the Traveller community are treated. Dublin City Council's budget for the maintenance of Traveller accommodation was cut from over €1 million to €50,000. In God's name, how could the council be expected to carry out maintenance on Traveller accommodation across the entire city for that amount? There is sheer discrimination against Travellers. The leaders of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil should take action against the councillors who made particular remarks. What was said was unacceptable.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy must conclude. Other Members are waiting to raise matters.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I have heard Deputies in the House use the same anti-Traveller tone as that employed by the councillors in question.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is over time. I am afraid that I must cut him off.

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I again thank the Deputies for raising this matter and for the views they expressed. I will certainly pass on the points they made to the Minister, Deputy Shatter.

I reiterate that the Garda authorities will pursue any evidence which points to the commission of a criminal act. We are all aware that the incident which occurred in Ballyshannon could have resulted in great loss of life. If anyone has information which indicates that the fire was started deliberately, there is a clear obligation on him or her to provide it directly to the Garda.

In the context of existing legal protections for members of the Traveller community, it is important to repeat that the key anti-discrimination measures, namely, the Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, the Unfair Dismissals Act 1997, the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts, specifically identify Travellers, by name, as a protected group. That is the law of the land. All of the protections listed in the EU's racial equality directive apply across the nine grounds on which discrimination is considered unlawful. The latter are contained in our domestic legislation and apply in respect of members of the Traveller community.

The Minister wishes to reaffirm that discriminatory and racist attitudes have no place in a modern civilised society. We cannot make matters any clearer than that. The law of the land applies equally to everyone.

The Minister is assured that the gardaí will pursue all illegal acts with vigour and professionalism.