Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

My apologies to the Acting Chair. I was unsure of the order of speakers. It will be very hard to follow the speech of Senator Mac Lochlainn. I commend him on his very strong and eloquent language in support of this important Bill. I welcome the Minister, Deputy Bruton, to the House and offer apologies on behalf of my colleague, Senator Ó Ríordáin, who cannot be here but asked me to express the strong support of the Labour Party for the Bill. I commend Senators Kelleher and Ruane and their colleagues on putting forward this important Bill which I am most pleased to support. I warmly welcome the groups and individuals in the Gallery to watch the debate, including my colleague, Dr. Ronan McCrea, who is an expert in equality law.I view this Bill as part of a process by which we have come to assert a stronger recognition of Traveller rights and culture. Senator Mac Lochlainn has played a huge role in this. He was a colleague of mine on the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice and Equality when we produced an important report on the recognition of Traveller ethnicity. All colleagues who served on that committee will recall the expert evidence given to the committee was very clear that legislation was not necessary in order to ensure the State would recognise Traveller ethnicity. That report led ultimately to the historic declaration by the then Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, in March 2017, to which Senator Kelleher and others referred.That very important historic declaration of recognition of ethnicity has paved the way for initiatives such as this Bill. I see this Bill as a measure which would give practical effect to the spirit behind that declaration of ethnicity. Clearly, there are many more steps that need to be taken, and others referred to the continuing and most distressing anti-Traveller attitudes we are seeing in many areas. We know that more needs to be done in the promotion of better healthcare measures, including mental healthcare measures, for Travellers.

I also listened, with interest, to the words of Senator Conway. I hope the Minister will support the Bill, as Senator Conway has indicated his support for it. The Senator also pointed out it may not be necessary to enact legislation in order to make a change to the curriculum in our schools to ensure children will be taught about Traveller culture and history. I would hope we might see such a step being taken. It might well need statutory underpinning and it is important it would have that to ensure it would be rolled out across all schools. It would be good to see immediate steps being taken to ensure the curriculum would include reference to Traveller culture and history. This is vital not only for children from the Traveller community but for all our children. Senator Kelleher eloquently spoke about that. This is a way of enriching our education system much more generally. This would broaden the cultural and historical education of Irish students. She pointed to the initiative of Black History Month as the way in which an initiative of this type can enrich education more generally.

We are also indebted to Senator Kelleher for providing us with a legal opinion in support of the legislation from James Kane in the Law Library. He rightly points out that Article 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the rights of children belonging to a minority or who are indigenous not to be denied the right to enjoy their own culture and so on. That is an important right relating to children from ethnic minorities such as the Traveller community but there is also the broader statement of the rights of children to receive a more inclusive education. That is well stated by the European Court of Human Rights in the Orsus v.Croatia case, where the court observed the emerging international consensus among member states of the Council of Europe, recognising the special needs of minorities and an obligation to protect their security, identity and lifestyle, not only for the purpose of safeguarding the interests of the minorities but to preserve a cultural diversity of value to the whole community. That is a very important point to emphasise, namely, that in a Bill of this nature the Minister would prescribe that Traveller culture and history would be taught in recognised schools and he would prescribe the content of the syllabus to be taught in that regard. This is important to enrich our education system as a whole in order to preserve the cultural diversity that is of value to our entire community. That is very important and it is the type of measure that will change the dreadful attitudes, to which Senator Mac Lochlainn referred. It is a very important practical step.

Within the Oireachtas this year, we have taken some very important steps with the Vótáil 100 committee, of which I am proud to be chair, to ensure that our school children are being taught more about the history of women's rights and of equality for women in Ireland and Irish society. We saw in this Chamber in April a group of wonderful transition year students debating the impact of women achieving the right to vote, as we mark the centenary of women's suffrage through our Díospóireacht na nÓg. That shows how changing the curriculum, ensuring that children receive education about the winning of rights and the gaining of equality in Irish society, can enrich children's educational experience generally. This Bill is an important measure in that vein. On behalf of the Labour Party, I am very happy to support it.