Results 881-900 of 1,384 for speaker:Eileen Flynn

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: We need to be mindful when we speak about homes that we automatically think about a house. For many Travellers, it happens to be a trailer. With regard to some of the points on implementation, before we move off them, the committee has met numerous times in private session. We have written to the Department looking for updates on where we are with the 84 recommendations that were in our...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: We will be meeting the National Traveller MABS about the Traveller caravan loan scheme soon. Is Deputy Ó Cuív happy?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Our Vice-Chair has to be happy.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Yes.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: I thank Ms Brack for her answer and Deputy Ó Cuív for his question. Before I forget, I wish to say that the TAP is not fit for purpose. The Deputy’s point on that was important.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Would anybody else like to come back in? I have a few questions. For the past three years, I have been in the Seanad and part of this committee. It has not been running for a year and a half. With regard to holding local authorities to account, the TAP, and listening to what Senator Gavan said about there possibly being no need for this, that maybe we should be focusing on a national...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Going back to what Deputy Buckley was saying earlier, it just seems so challenging, and the political will at a local level is just not there. There is one challenge after another. Even if you get the permission for the redevelopment, and I would know this from Labre Park, you have then got the challenges of Part 8 as well.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Have any of the 84 recommendations been implemented?

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation (30 Nov 2023)

Eileen Flynn: It is important we touch on some of the positives from the committee and the work we can collectively do. If no other member wishes to come back in, I will thank Ms Brack and Mr. Joyce for presenting to us. The committee knows these are not new issues and we do not have to recreate the wheel. The answers are there through the expert group, the committee, the national organisations and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters: Planning for Inclusive Communities: Discussion (6 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: I thank the witnesses for coming in. Until I joined this committee, I did not know there was a housing authority for people with disabilities. It is so welcome. We, in the Traveller movement, are looking for a specific housing authority for members of the Traveller community so I will be in contact with the witnesses again. Not many people even know there is an authority for housing that...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Apologies have been received from Senator Joe O'Reilly. I remind members that they must be physically present within Leinster House in order to take part in the public meeting. I will not allow members to take part in the meeting if they are not within Leinster House. The evidence of witnesses physically present in Leinster House is protected by absolute privilege. Witnesses should not...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Regarding actions, as we have seen from Deputy Stanton's input and his parliamentary question, it is important that we write to the council and get the information needed. It is great that committee members care so much about the issues. Education is an issue that the committee must focus on in January.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: I can kind of answer that question. The recommendation for the Traveller authority around housing came from the expert group in 2019. It is also a recommendation of this committee. For the past 15 to 16 years I have been part of TAPs with the local Traveller accommodation consultative committees. We know better than anyone, Mr. O'Sullivan, that in the entire country, not one of those TAP...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: This relates to the delivery of the 32 recommendations under the expert group.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: The biggest challenge with the redevelopment of Traveller accommodation sites is Part 8. Labre Park, similar to Spring Lane, has been waiting to get through Part 8 for more than a decade. I have no doubt that if we do not keep on top of Spring Lane, we will still be at Part 8. The recommendations we are talking about today, which both organisations have again brought to the committee's...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: I thank Ms O'Donoghue. I know about this from the work we do and from the National Traveller Women's Forum, which is doing its best to get Traveller women access to refuges if needs be, including providing locations of refuges. This is not to say that Ms O'Donoghue is wrong. Far from it, but I think that Clúid Housing has taken over some sites and there is some good practice with the...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: If you take the maintenance money out of Traveller accommodation budget, they could spend hundreds of thousands of euro on repairs on sites. These could include kitchens that would not be put into settled people’s houses but it is okay to put them into Traveller homes. At yesterday’s disability committee, I spoke about children and people with disabilities. To give an...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: Ms Carmody wanted to come in.

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: I think that is a very important question. It will require a consultation with the national and local organisations. An Act is just an Act; it does not have to be acted on, if that makes sense. A review of the Traveller accommodation Act would be something that would benefit the Traveller community but while we review these Acts, we are taking our eyes off the ball of implementation of...

Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community: Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed) (7 Dec 2023)

Eileen Flynn: When we speak to people like Mr. O'Sullivan, Ms Carmody, Ms Kelly and Ms O'Donoghue, we hear about people waiting on the TAP for decades. It is still as if we are in a worse place to what we were when we started and when the Act around Traveller accommodation was put together. That is absolutely heartbreaking for the community as a whole. Accommodation is everything. Accommodation is your...