John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to welcome the Minister, Deputy McHugh, to the Upper House. I wish him the very best. He will, hopefully, have plenty of time to put his feet under the desk and get to grips with a really important brief in the Department of Education and Skills. I thank Senator Kelleher for having the drive, energy and guts to push on with this and to be able to involve others and get support across the House. I welcome everyone in the Gallery. Education and prejudice, it is easy. Senator Mac Lochlainn put his finger on something very pertinent here. Many people, and I cannot say I am not one of them or have not been one of them - we need to be honest about this - carry easy prejudice and at times we all do. People hold views and it is important to challenge them, but to challenge respectfully. Education is a powerful tool, as is the symbolism of this Bill. We know the power of symbolism on this island for good and ill. This Bill is a symbol and from it will come discourse, learning and sharing about identity, background and the contributions people can make.

I was working in a polling station back in the early 1980s when we had a slew of elections. I was somewhere on the northside of Dublin, in Coolock or that area. This woman arrived into the door, stood there foursquare and asked "Where do I vote for Charlie Haughey as he got me my tigín?". She was a Traveller woman and she could not write but she was doing something other people would not have got out of bed to do that morning. She was coming to vote. She understood the political process and the importance of it and that there was a value in it. I said to myself "I hope she is not coming to my table". We were not allowed to coach people. The big problem was Cathal Ó hEachaidh was not a candidate in that constituency, so how was I going to square that one? We had a Coolock solution to a Coolock problem and the woman was satisfied she got to vote for candidates that would have been her preference.

Somebody with that strength of purpose and that strength in herself did not give a damn. She was there to vote, she had a preference and she wanted to share it. I have never forgotten the power of that moment that morning. I suppose the woman had never been to a school. I refer to not just going to school but being in school as an equal.

The point I want to make is about prejudice. People will point to all sorts of things that Travellers do - crime, this, that and the other. We all do crime, this, that and the other. It is an issue in any society. We all have to face up that. It is not true to say all people do that or a class of people do that. There is a more benign way to talk about that. I have been involved in the area of disability for 40 years. People used to say that disabled people cannot do this and cannot do that. That was a prejudice that has had to be ground down and filed away slowly. This Bill is a new file or rasp to slowly, day by day, year by year, file away the roots of prejudice.

I have previously mentioned and spoken about the Nazis. They made 300,000 disabled people, of whom we know, disappear. They made countless thousands of people, who were nomadic travellers and gypsies, disappear. All that was be done for one simple reason. Strip people of their dignity and basic humanity and one can do whatever the hell one likes with them the next day. It took the Nazis a decade. They had to bring in the Nuremberg Laws to strip the humanity and dignity from people of the Jewish faith. They did not have to do that for people who were homosexual, travellers, gypsies or disabled.

There is something really big at play here. I do not say that in a negative way but in a positive way. This legislation is gold dust. It can go right to the heart of supporting children and families from the Traveller community and the wider community.Of course, there is prejudice but we must try to check ourselves on a daily basis and not denigrate groups of people.

I want to thank my parents. I remember Travellers coming to our door while we were having dinner and my parents inviting them in. Their attitude meant that I did not see a difference between us and Travellers. I remember an elderly farmer who lived near us and dealt in ponies and so on. On one occasion when returning from making hay we passed a Traveller camp. He knew the Travellers and we went in. That was the first time I sat around a campfire. I was only a young boy and found it very exciting. He chatted to them and they chatted to him. I am grateful to have had those two experiences because I could have had two very different ones which might have set me on a different course. I will not suggest what such experiences might have been as all present know to what I refer.

This is a powerful issue. We should not underestimate the life and death value of celebrating people and their dignity and helping to heal the intergenerational wounds that a group of people carry in their hearts and which can be so easily opened by a simple remark on the street or in public.

I thank Senator Kelleher for bringing forward the Bill. I wish the Minister every success. It is wonderful to see the Gallery full of people who have a great stake in this issue and the future of what should be a true republic for everybody.