Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Tá áthas orm go bhfuil an tAire Stáit féin tar éis teacht isteach leis an gceist a thógáil. I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter. I am aware of his concern regarding the Traveller community and his commitment to trying to progress issues.

There was a big occasion in the House earlier this year when Travellers were declared an ethnically distinct group in our society. The real question is whether this will translate into a change in their status and well-being. The Traveller community survey that was carried out is extremely informative. It shows the serious challenges faced by the Traveller community. I compliment the Traveller organisations and the Community Foundation for Ireland for commissioning this analysis. It follows many other analyses. I recall a study carried out, as part of a far bigger analysis of social attitudes, by an tAthair Micheál MacGréil in which he tracked this issue over many decades. The standing of many groups changes but, as he said at the time, the standing of Travellers is the great apartheid in Irish society.

The highlights from the survey are quite scary. Some 62% said that accommodation issues are worse than they were five years ago and 72% said that mental health issues are worse than they were five years ago. Unemployment, at 50%, is worse than five years ago. The survey states that 60% are not working but when one adds to that the number who are on schemes or in Traveller community work, we find that it is over 90%. This means only 10% are in commercial employment. More seriously, 0% of Travellers are in State employment. This is an issue I tried to deal with when I served as a Minister. We looked at ways of ensuring that people from the Traveller community would be brought into the public service. Another pertinent factor is the fact that only 30% of Travellers who get training end up in employment. That is a very low progression rate.

Some 36% of Travellers state that they have very poor health, which is way above the national average. We are aware of the suicide rate and, in particular, there is a high rate of mental health issues among men, as well as low self-esteem. Unfortunately, 48% say that they have experienced discrimination at the hands of the Garda and 25% say they have experienced it with housing authorities. Unlike their counterparts in the settled community, a very high percentage of Travellers must interact with housing authorities for public housing. A much higher percentage of the rest of the community provides its own housing and would not have day-to-day contact with housing authorities. The figure in respect of pub staff, shop staff and so forth is approximately 30%. A figure that those of us who work consistently with Travellers can testify to is the 90% who say that they have been the subject of discrimination by the public at large at some time in their lives. It is interesting that, in this survey and the one last year, the figure for Connacht-Ulster is 10% to 20% lower, which shows there is more social acceptance in that province.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ó Cuív for raising this important matter. We both acknowledge that the Traveller Community National Survey is a timely and valuable resource. I have read it a number of times. It covers a range of important issues affecting the Traveller community.

As the Deputy will be aware, last June I launched the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy for the period from 2017 to 2021. I am sure the Deputy has a copy of it. If he does not, I will arrange for a copy to be sent to him. The steering group, which I chair, was established to oversee the development and implementation of the strategy. This group is made up of officials representing relevant Departments and agencies, as well as representatives from the national Traveller non-governmental organisations, NGOs. The strategy contains ten themes. Grouped under these, 149 actions were identified as necessary to help to advance the betterment of the lives of Travellers and Roma in Ireland. To date, work has begun on approximately 100 of the actions. Accommodation is highlighted as a priority for Travellers in both the strategy and the survey. The 2018 capital provision for Traveller-specific accommodation is €12 million, an increase of €3 million on 2017. Further funding may be considered throughout the year, also on a case-by-case basis, in light of progress across the programme generally.

Regarding education, the national strategy contains 14 key education-related actions. While improvements on education outcomes for Travellers as opposed to five years ago are reflected in the 2017 national survey, I am well aware that much more needs to be done, and is being done, in this regard. In fact, a sub-committee of the national strategy steering group has been established to deal with the issue of retention of Traveller and Roma children in education. At its most recent meeting, a proposal was jointly agreed by my Department, the Department of Education and Skills and Tusla to implement a pilot project on this issue in four locations with high Traveller and-or Roma populations. Tusla's education welfare service, comprising the statutory Education Welfare Service, the school completion programme and the home-school community liaison scheme, are key supports for Traveller children.

Earlier this year, the Department of Education and Skills published the DEIS Plan 2017. The plan includes specific actions relating to Traveller and Roma education to promote improvements in school attendance and completion. It should be noted that the Department of Education and Skills continues to provide a number of specific additional resources to support Traveller and Roma children in the school system, including: 141 alleviation resource teacher posts for schools with significant numbers of Travellers and Roma at a cost of €8.46 million; and additional pupil capitation for Travellers and Roma, at a rate of €70 per pupil for primary level and €201 per pupil for post-primary level, at a cost of €1.11 million.

The outcome of the first strand of the programme for access to higher education, PATH, funding was announced by the Minister for Education and Skills in April 2017 and €2.7 million will be allocated through PATH 1 over the next three years to support initiatives by centres of teaching excellence to increase diversity in the teaching profession. Through the PATH 2 1916 bursaries fund, €6 million will be invested in bursaries for students from target groups, including Travellers, over the next three years. Each bursary will be worth €5,000 per year and may be held in addition to a Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grant. The PATH 3 higher education access fund is intended to support regional clusters of higher education institutions to attract 2,000 additional students, full-time or part-time, from groups currently under-represented in higher education, including Travellers. A total of €7.5 million will be allocated over the next three years through the PATH 3 fund.

Turning to access to employment, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection operates a wide range of employment supports. While, in general, the Department's measures are available to Travellers on the same basis as the rest of the population, community employment has special provision for members of the Traveller community.

Traveller health is also a priority area under the national strategy. Examples of targeted support programmes include funding of a range of Traveller agencies and groups to implement priority programmes and actions via service level agreements, such as primary health care projects, counselling services, family support programmes, men's health projects and so forth. In addition to funding to agencies for the delivery of Traveller health programmes, the HSE employs a number of public health nurses and related staff to address priority health needs of members of the Traveller community. In addition, the National Office for Suicide Prevention funds Exchange House Ireland to address the mental health promotion and suicide prevention needs of the Traveller community. Nine mental health service co-ordinators are currently being recruited by the mental health division of the HSE with the aim of driving, managing and supporting implementation of agreed Traveller programmes and actions in respect of Traveller mental health.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has allocated approximately €500,000 to support several projects specific to Travellers nationwide on the basis of proposals received from local authorities regarding developing facilities for the urban Traveller horse population.

A great deal more is being done, and it needs to be done.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. In the limited time available, I wish to focus on two important issues. The first is that we provide money for Traveller-specific accommodation.

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The problem is that under our current system, we can bring the horse to water but we cannot make it drink. The reality is that in many local authority areas, including one very close to me, the local authority is not drawing the money down despite it being available and is not making the hard decisions because there is local opposition. It is very hard to get a Part 8 and where it involves voluntary housing, they stop it because they will not sell the land.

One thing that could be done in 2018 is to change the law if necessary to take responsibility for making decisions about Traveller-specific housing away from local authority members and give it to An Bord Pleanála, where most issues wind up anyway. The Minister of State knows that when it involves the local authority, the reality is that members must vote and that just does not happen in some local authorities. It is non-functional.

The other issue is employment. It is interesting when we look at education because it is one place where significant improvement was made between 2000 and 2017. The percentage of those with the junior certificate has gone from 9% to 39% while the percentage with the leaving certificate has gone from virtually 0% to 16%. The percentage at third level is 5% between postgraduate, undergraduate degree, diploma and other third level. That is a great improvement from nothing. It is small but it is an improvement. However, we are not translating that into the workplace. The State should ensure that quotas are put aside to ensure that Travellers are incorporated in the public service and Civil Service. The social change that would bring about would be immense because the more we integrate people into the mainframe of society, the more the pace of change will accelerate, everybody will have a better life and the community will feel more included in Irish society.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge the Deputy's point that the recognition last March by the Government and indeed by all parties here of Travellers as an ethnic minority represented a crucial step forward in the relationship between the Government, the Traveller community and the settled community. It is my aim that the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy will build on this landmark decision and we will work to bring about concrete improvements in the lives of Travellers across the country. The national strategy is a work in progress. I ask everybody to support and become aware of it to ensure it works.

Again, I note the Deputy's understandable concerns about the issues affecting the Traveller community, which have been covered by this survey. My Department and I are ensuring that progress continues to be made regarding tackling each of the areas of concern raised in the national Traveller community survey. Implementing the national Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy is a key objective of mine in co-operation with other key stakeholders. Again, I ask councillors around the country to row in behind this strategy and support it. They have a responsibility as councillors to do that.

In line with the objectives of the national strategy, the programme that is of real benefit to Travellers is the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP, which has the aim of reducing poverty and promoting social inclusion and equality through local, regional and national engagement and collaboration. The SICAP funding allocation for front-line delivery for 2017 is €37.5 million, which includes an allocation of €3 million under the European Social Fund's programme for employability, inclusion and learning programme 2014-20. It is a key priority of Government and as a key intervention for the hard to reach in society, the Deputy will be pleased to know that the programme's target groups include Travellers in particular. From 1 January to 21 March 2017, SICAP supported 22,105 individuals, of which 385 self-identified as Irish Travellers with 147 local community groups supported under SICAP where Travellers are a named target group.

I note the Deputy's desire for more Travellers to be included and employed by the State, including Government Departments. Again, this is also part of the strategy. The strategy is very new, having been launched in June. I look forward to everybody supporting it and working through it. Everybody agrees that the challenges are enormous. There is a lot to be done.