Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Agus muid ag seasamh anseo, táimid ag smaoineamh ach go háirid ar mhuintir Connor, a gcuid cairde agus gaolta agus an cúigear den chlann sin atá á chur i gcré na cille inniu. The failure to reach a satisfactory outcome over a proposed temporary halting site at Rockville Drive for the bereaved Traveller families is deeply disappointing. Travellers are citizens with rights but those rights are being denied to them. On Tuesday, in the Dáil, my party leader, Deputy Gerry Adams, called on the Taoiseach to intervene directly in the Traveller issue and to establish as a matter of urgency a State-wide forum involving Travellers, political parties, Government, local authorities, the health and education sectors and media organisations to make recommendations on how this major issue of inequality facing our society can be addressed. The Taoiseach refused claiming existing structures are sufficient. We support the call by Pavee Point for a dedicated Traveller agency to co-ordinate and, where appropriate, enforce Government policy affecting Travellers. I urge the Government, as a first practical step towards new and effective positive policies for Travellers, to implement the recommendations of the April 2014 report on Traveller ethnicity by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality. In particular, the Government should recognise formally the distinct ethnicity of the Traveller community, as promised.

I visited a number of halting sites over the weekend. There is a halting site in Carrowbrowne in Galway city. Its planning permission has expired and I am told the city council has no plan B for the people on that site. There is another unofficial site next to it which is adjacent what is basically a dump. A pregnant woman had to go to the accident and emergency department at the weekend because the stink from the dump was so bad. I am told the children cannot eat their breakfasts there because they feel sick in the morning. They are being brought to friends' houses in the morning to eat their breakfasts. It is galling to hear some of the Senators on the Government side talking about these issues when we see all the cuts to funding for Traveller initiatives which have been brought in over recent years. Funding for Traveller education has been cut by 86% and funding for Traveller accommodation cut by 85%. Funding for equality projects for Travellers has been cut by 77%. On top of that, there have been underspends on Traveller health and Traveller accommodation of 18% and 36%, respectively, and an underspend on a FÁS special initiative of 40%.