Eileen Flynn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

On 1 March 2017, Enda Kenny recognised the Traveller community as an ethnic minority group. Since then, we have seen pure tokenism for our community.We are not truly recognised in Ireland as an ethnic minority group. This brings me to the issue of the joint committee which focused on matters that impact the Traveller community, such as health, mental health, education, employment and accommodation. During the last term, the committee also focused on Travellers in the justice system. That committee, of which I was Chairperson, was dissolved in November 2024. We are looking to re-establish the Traveller committee in order that Travellers can have a meaningful voice within these Houses, especially when it comes to legislation and policies that impact our community. There was a missed opportunity for us to work with the Roma community while we were working on issues that impact Travellers. We would love to see the committee re-established. We worked very closely with local authorities and had great relationships with them and communities. I ask the Leader for as much support as possible from this House to re-establish the Traveller committee. One in every 11 deaths in our community is caused by suicide. Traveller women live 12 years less than women in the general population and Traveller men live 15 years less than men in the general population. We have many crises within our community, such as addiction, homelessness, health and mental health. I would really appreciate the Leader’s support for the re-establishment of the Traveller committee. We worked to make it a long-standing committee to truly recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority group. The committee members fought for that at the time. We were just on the edge of getting it when the general election was called.