Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do, but I will keep it brief. I am disappointed. I would have liked for us to be closer today, but I feel we have the basis for further conversation. We can do more work when this Bill goes to the Dáil. I thank Oein de Bhairdúin who guided me through this Bill and so much more. I also thank the members of the Traveller advisory group, which informed the audit, the Irish Traveller Movement and other NGOs, local and national. I thank everybody who shared their stories, some of which were painful at times, as well as all those who spoke at briefings. My eyes continue to be opened and my world broadened all of the time. I know I mangle my words sometimes, but they have also been expanded in their range. I appreciate what these people teach me. That is not their job, but I am learning.

I thank my own team of Ben Meany, listening in from Brussels, the recently arrived but fully-fledged Hannah Twomey and, of course, Aengus Ó Maoláin for his wisdom and expertise. I also thank Mr. James Kane, the barrister who drafted the Bill, the Public Law Interest Alliance, PILA, and my colleagues, Senators Ruane, Higgins, Dolan, Black and former Senator, Grace O'Sullivan, who is now also in Brussels. I thank all of the other Senators for their support as well. I also thank the Minister, his advisors and his officials.

We are not talking about a great number of people, only some 40,000, which is half the crowd in Croke Park on all-Ireland day.The Traveller community is Ireland's only ethnic minority. The ground to travel was taken from under them; local authorities handed back money for the accommodation they needed and were entitled to and heartless people turned away even when families and children burned. School is a cold place, ignorant of who they are, where they came from and come from, where their hours are reduced or they drop out because they are bullied, their spirit and identity not acknowledged and not cherished. Teachers do not know or teach their history even when the Department issues them with guidelines and 80% of these industrious people are unemployed in an economy with full employment, their average life expectancy being 61, the life expectancy of the general population in the 1940s, but now 75 for the rest of us. Their babies are three times more likely to die and most days what they hear are harsh words and hate words, with hotels cancelling funeral gatherings and weddings when they know who they are. Travellers are to the front of the queue for cuts and not much else. Traveller men are seven times more likely to take their own lives than the general population and Traveller women six times more likely to do so. Many Travellers have lost six, seven and eight family members to suicide. They are resilient people who stay strong in the face of this adversity. We are told that education is the hope to break the cycle of racism, prejudice and discrimination, that through knowledge and learning by us all, we will know better and this means we can almost certainly do better.

Today, the Minister, Deputy McHugh, has the opportunity to reflect on what he has heard in this House and to, perhaps, change his mind. In championing the passage of the Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill 2018, he will join the ranks of courageous politicians like Deputy Enda Kenny for his historic recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority; Donogh O'Malley for free second level education; Niamh Breathnach for free third level education; Máire Geoghegan-Quinn for decriminalising homosexuality; Deputy Micheál Martin for the smoking ban; Deputy Adams and the late Martin McGuinness for the Good Friday Agreement and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, for safe abortion care in Ireland.

I am a Taoiseach's nominee. The Taoiseach stated prejudice has no place in this republic. Will the Minister please champion the passage of this strong Traveller Culture and History in Education Bill into the Dáil and into law? In doing so, he will be making history and joining the ranks of politicians who break the mould and do the right thing.