Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our guests. I thank everyone who came before the committee to share their insights. As I often say, when it comes to committees, we are not the experts. We are there to hear witnesses' expert testimony and to make recommendations on the basis of what really matters for their communities. I will say to everyone who came before us, and everyone who opened their homes on the halting sites we visited throughout the country, including in the constituency of Galway West where I live, that we could not have found a better welcome. I also thank the Chair of the committee, Senator Flynn, for her fantastic advocacy, not just on the committee but in everything she does. We owe it to her and all those communities to not just have another report on a shelf but to take action. That is needed now. If there is one clear message that came to us, it is that we need action.

We have had the 2019 expert report, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission's 2021 report and now this committee's report. When the Working Group of Committee Cathaoirligh met with the Ceann Comhairle recently, the strongest message that came from the Traveller committee was the need for transparency on a regular basis. How many houses have been delivered? How much Traveller-specific accommodation has been delivered this quarter? That is what we want to see. We do not need more promises.

I will look at the figures. In 2021, 70 Traveller-specific units were built. That included 18 new halting site units, five major refurbishments and ten group housing units. In the constituency in which I live, Cena, which is a fantastic approved housing body, will build four units. However, this does not scratch the surface. The figures supplied by Mr. John O'Connor from the Housing Agency indicated that 1,000 of those on the accommodation list have Traveller-specific needs. That is a massive number we need to address.

We need to hear from experts so I will reference Mr. Pat Doyle, CEO of the Peter McVerry Trust, who said:

Very often we have the sites. Very often we have [the] funding and the backing from the department but [what] we need [is] ... local leadership to step up and say, ‘look, there’s a housing crisis and we need to house people. We need to house Travellers, homeless people, people with disabilities.’ We get it from every party [by that he means every political party] that they want housing. But at a local level we [do not] get [it] ...

We need councillors and executives of local authorities to step up to the mark. As Mr. Doyle said, at a local level it is a case of people saying they know there is a housing crisis, but they do not want these houses in their areas. That is no longer good enough. We all need to call that out, including within our own parties. That is what I wanted to say on accommodation.

I will also pick up on the employment issue, which I feel very strongly about. I know of amazing organisations, such as Bounceback and Mr. Martin Ward from the Galway Traveller Movement, and the women associated with Bounceback in Galway. They run a recycling project there that brings in mattresses in from 12 counties. Mr. Ward said to the committee that while Travellers are great innovators, which goes back to their history, they are innovators because they do not have any other options, as people do not employ them in jobs in their companies and the public service is not taking them in. We need to say that it is great, and let us celebrate fantastic organisations, but let us also say it is time for the State to play its part. There needs to be quotas in the public service because that is the part we can control. We must control that.

Many people want to contribute and this is a very important debate so I will leave it there. I look forward to hearing the Minister's comments. The Working Group of Committee Cathaoirligh will have another meeting the Ceann Comhairle. Officials from the Department of Housing, Heritage and Local Government appeared before the committee. We will bring others in and will ask them questions on behalf of the Traveller community and the committee we all feel very passionately about.