Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to introduce legislation that would provide for the recognition of Traveller ethnicity. [6004/13]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I have no immediate plans to introduce such legislation though, as I have indicated in the past, serious consideration is being given to this issue.

I am aware of the long standing wish of many Travellers that such status be granted but there are also some divergent views. I am also aware that the previous Government was of the view that Travellers are not an ethnic minority. Dialogue between staff of my Department and representatives of Traveller organisations has taken place in the past on the issue, for example, during the course of a seminar on the third State report under the Council of Europe Convention on National Minorities. In addition, the National Traveller Monitoring and Advisory Committee, on which sit representatives of all the national Traveller organisations as well as officials of the Department of Justice and Equality, in 2012 established a sub-group specifically to consider the issue of Traveller ethnicity. Arising from the work of this group, among other things, a conference was held in Dublin Castle, supported by my Department. At this conference various aspects of the ethnicity subject were considered from a wide spectrum of opinion.

I would like to remind the house that Travellers in Ireland have the same civil and political rights as other citizens under the Constitution. The key anti-discrimination measures, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989, the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977, the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts specifically identify Travellers by name as a group protected. The Equality Act 2004, which transposed the EU Racial Equality Directive, applied all the protections of that Directive across all of the nine grounds contained in the legislation, including the Traveller community ground. All the protections afforded to ethnic minorities in EU directives and international conventions apply to Travellers because the Irish legislation giving effect to those international instruments explicitly protects Travellers.

I would like to inform the Deputy that consideration of this issue remains ongoing with a view to ensuring that full analysis of all aspects of the granting of ethnic status to Travellers is available to Government when coming to a decision on the matter.