Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am very grateful that the Taoiseach nominated me because of all the work I have done in the past as an activist, a person on the ground and, most importantly, as somebody from the Traveller community. I will have been in the House two years on 27 June. For the two years I have been here, I have called numerous times for action on Traveller mental health. The National Traveller Mental Health Network has also been calling for action on Traveller mental health. I will have to go through these figures again. I ask the Deputy Leader to bear in mind that they are not just statistics. These are people within our Irish Travelling community. One in 11 deaths in the Travelling community is caused by suicide. It is 7% higher for Traveller men and 6% higher for Traveller women than people in the general population. In the two years I have been here, numerous people within my community have died by suicide.

With regard to the levels of internalised and externalised oppression that come with being a member of the Travelling community, we are treated worse than second-class citizens within Irish society. Over the past two years, I have called on the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, to meet with the National Traveller Mental Health Network. I have also tabled a Commencement matter very recently on it. Unfortunately, I have no straight answers from the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. We are looking for a stand-alone national Traveller mental health strategy to deal with the Traveller mental health crisis in our community.

Every Senator in this House has a role to play in protecting the Travelling community from dying by suicide. The starting point to that is the Government, the Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and the Minister for Health coming together, meeting us half way and doing what they said they would do nearly three years ago, which was to implement a national Traveller mental health strategy. That is nowhere to be seen. I feel I have been a broken record for the past two years. Unfortunately, I will keep carrying one message because that is what I was appointed to do and my community wants me to keep delivering this message.

Will Senators stand with me, collectively, to write a letter to the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and ask that the Taoiseach replies to the community, as he did the last day? The community, however, was not very fond of the answer it got. I ask that we are replied to in a respectable manner and that we see action after today's protest. If there is any way we can come together to make some kind of action happen for our community, we would very much appreciate it.