Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I also welcome the members of the Traveller community who have come to the House today to watch this important debate. Senator Kelleher asked me to support her legislation and I have indicated I will support it.

Hardly a word has been spoken in this debate thus far with which I do not agree, but there are points I want to personally emphasise. Travellers are not the challenge; the challenge is the statistics given about dropout rates, suicide rates, marginalisation, economic exclusion and so on. The figures portray an exclusion and a sense of being an outsider and to some extent a determination on the part of the settled community to keep Travellers in an outsider status. This is undesirable, wrong, unfair, unrepublican and unpatriotic and we have to work to deal with it.

Not everything centres on education but a decent education is an absolute prerequisite to economic, social and citizen equality in any republic. From that perspective, the dropout rate of Travellers from the education system, whereas it may have economic and cultural explanations, is nonetheless a challenge in itself. It must be the case that the educational curriculum, not merely in schools Traveller children attend and in which they receive an education but also in schools where Traveller children are not present, should emphasise that every citizen of Ireland is to be valued and should not be ashamed of his or her economic, social, cultural or ethnic identity. Every school in Ireland should have these values as the ethical cornerstones of the moral education of children. More important than that proposition, as Senator Kelleher emphasised, is that a Traveller child entering a school should see it as a place into which he or she enters, not as some kind of privilege or concession, but as of right. This is not a bare legal right but a moral right to receive education in a manner that receives and understands and is a warm place to them.

Having said those few words, I commend Senators Kelleher, Ruane and Grace O'Sullivan for bringing forward the legislation. Some speakers have noted that a legislative basis may not be necessary for the required action to transform our curriculum and to ensure this curricular transformation takes place. The very fact that these actions have not been taken for many years suggests that this is not simply a legislative gesture, but seems to be a legislative necessity. It also seems to be the case that those who have failed in the past to transform education to make it Traveller friendly and Traveller appreciative in the way this Bill intends includes an entire political generation. I include myself in that and I do not pretend otherwise. Those in the past who failed to advance the particular aims set out in this legislation need to have the duty cast in a very clear way that does not admit any further delay, prevarication or time-serving as regards this equality measure.Having made those points, wished the proposers of the Bill every success in its passage and come to the view that there are no obstacles to its passage into law, I urge the Minister to accept the Bill, the reasoning for it and the opportunity it offers the State to make a real and significant difference to the experience of the Traveller community in the educational process. It would also make a significant difference in terms of the education of the settled community on the reality of the life, attitudes and culture of the Traveller community and the discrimination it has faced. I warmly support the Bill.