Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will speak briefly on the amendment on Traveller accommodation that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has indicated his Department cannot accept. Yesterday, while the Minister of State was in this Chamber, he made a comment that Traveller accommodation falls under the traveller accommodation programme, TAP, which is handled at a local and national level as well. That is the problem. It has not worked in the past 25 years and the Minister of State should implement the amendments from the Civil Engagement Group, some of which came from the Oireachtas committee on the Traveller community and the traveller expert group from 2019. Some of those amendments also came from the Traveller committee and the Traveller expert group from 2019. How can we stand by this in the next ten years? This is a bit like the itinerant report that was made to make the Traveller community fake settled people and how it referred to us as a community. I can guarantee that in the next ten or 15 years, members of my community will look on this legislation and say they were failed by it. Even today, members of the Traveller community are being failed by this legislation. The response from the Minister of State here today and from the Minister and the junior Minister is that we have the national framework for Traveller accommodation programme, TAP. That has not worked for 25 years. If something is not working, we have to fix it and this Bill gives us that opportunity. This relates to these amendments, around disability rights and disabled people's accommodation being linked in this legislation. It may seem strong to the House, but this is blatant discrimination, once again, against disabled people and members of the Traveller community. I urge the Minister of State to think about that. In the next ten or 15 years, I am sure that people will feel so let down by him, the Minister and the junior Minister for housing. Now we have, "Drink the soup while it is hot". Now we have the opportunity to name Travellers and disabled people in this legislation. We need the political will to be able to do that.