Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Civil Engagement Group is more than happy to support the motion on disability rights and service during Covid-19.

This is a very emotional weekend for the Traveller community. Has Ireland forgotten the Carrickmines tragedy? Tara Gilbert, aged 27, Jimmy Lynch, aged 25, their daughters Jodie, aged nine, and Kelsey, aged four, died in the fire, as did Willy Lynch, aged 39, as well as Thomas and Sylvia Connors, both aged 27, and their children Jimmy, aged five, Christy, aged two, and Mary, who was five months old. Five years on from the Carrickmines tragedy, living conditions for the Traveller community have, unfortunately, dramatically worsened. Evictions have worsened. The Traveller community must live in dire accommodation on halting sites or the side of the road, without running water or a safe place to call home. I call on the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, to come to the House tomorrow to address some of the questions I have around Traveller accommodation. Those questions are not on my behalf - I have a safe roof over my head and everything I need as an individual - but, rather, for the Traveller community as a whole. We have been failed year after year through local authorities. After the Carrickmines tragedy, the family went to a safer place in a car park. Unfortunately, the neighbours did not want Travellers living around them. As a result, the family members who survived the Carrickmines fire are still living in the place where their relations tragically died. Although the rest of Ireland seems to have forgotten about the Carrickmines tragedy, the Traveller community has not forgotten it.We will never forget the hurt and pain of losing ten members of our community, including a pregnant woman, to a tragic fire the likes of which we have not seen since the Stardust. We want justice. Ten people died and we still have not got justice around accommodation and housing in Ireland. We are 13 times more likely to be homeless than the general population. Today, I am calling on the Minister to come to the House tomorrow and answer some of the questions.