Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In welcoming the Minister to the House, I acknowledge and welcome Senator Kelleher's Bill. The Senator should not have to introduce legislation to have the proposed measure implemented. It should already be in place as a structure for doing so is in place in the education system. If the Minister and his officials were so inclined, they could issue a directive requiring that this subject be on the curriculum of primary and post-primary schools from September onwards. I encourage him to do so. This Bill will become law. I very much support it and I hope, in the interests of justice, fairness, equality of opportunity and equality in general, that the Government will also support it and allow it to pass in both Houses. Once passed in this House, it should swiftly move to the Dáil and become law.

We should educate mainstream - if one can call them that - settled children on the culture of Travellers in any case. We have a responsibility to do that because Travellers are a recognised ethnic group in this community. The former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, to his eternal credit, ensured before he left office that Traveller ethnicity was recognised by the Government. That decision changes the landscape completely. We have now recognised Travellers as an ethnic group, which brings with it responsibilities to educate our young people about the diversity, uniqueness and rich culture of one of our traditional ethnic groups. It is a priority that this should become part of the educational curriculum.

I take the Bill as read because it will be passed, and rightly so. Senator Kelleher has championed these issues since she came into these Houses, and with great success. Education within the Traveller community has not received sufficient resources. Schools trying to provide equal opportunity and access to education to Travellers need to be provided with the supports to do so. The one way we see members of the Travelling community get out of poverty and get opportunities is by giving them as much access as possible to education. It has been proved time and again that Travellers who have benefited from education have gone on to make an enormous contribution to this country and its culture and identity. The more members of the Travelling community who have access to education, the more their abilities will be brought to the fore and they will be able to make an even greater contribution to society. That percolates through all minority groups, but particularly Travellers. The number of Travellers who go on to third level is very small.I do not have the figures but I know it is very small, which should not be the case. The figure should be much higher. I know quite a few Travellers and they are extremely intelligent people with a huge amount to offer. If they had opportunities they could have developed their skills to a very high level. We are only at the start of fulfilling our responsibilities towards the Traveller community. The Bill is an important incremental step in the right direction and I sincerely hope it will be supported.