Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak at such an important debate. The work that Senator Flynn and the other members of the committee have completed is historic and vitally important. I will just speak about mental health and the stark realities of the mental health crisis in the Traveller community.

I will read the statistics again because they are vital. Suicide accounts for 11% of all deaths among Travellers. Traveller women are seven times more likely to die by suicide. Travellers represent less than 1% of the population of the Republic of Ireland yet they make up over 10% of suicides among young adult men and boys. The stories we hear about suicides in the community, involving young children or members of the same family are devastating. The pain that many families and communities are grappling with is unimaginable. We know that the mental health care system in this country is strained to near breaking point. People are often left on waiting lists for unbearable durations but all these issues around access to care are amplified in the Traveller community due to social exclusion and a lack of access to resources. We need to ensure the community has access to comprehensive, culturally informed mental health services. This is an emergency.

This is a crisis that concerns us all. Successive Governments have seen first-hand this disaster unfold and have failed to develop a strategy to respond. We have a moral obligation to deal with the fallout of decades of State persecution of the Traveller community. The Irish State is culpable for the profound inequalities Travellers face. The 1963 report of the Commission on Itinerancy presented nomadic lifestyles as inherently inferior. Travellers were presented as a social problem to be solved. We need to state clearly now that nomadism is not the problem; racism is.