Written answers

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Department of Justice and Equality

Traveller Culture

Photo of Mick WallaceMick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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74. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality in view of the fact that the recognition of Traveller ethnicity has been repeatedly called for by the UN in order for Ireland to comply with its obligations under the ICCPR, when and how he intends to recognise Traveller ethnicity; the official steps or progression his Department has made over the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52666/13]

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of calls on the part of many Travellers, including a number of national Traveller movements, for recognition of Travellers as an ethnic minority but equally of the fact that this is not a universally shared view. I am also aware of calls for the Government to consider granting such status in the context of international conventions to which Ireland is a party. I have, against that background, previously undertaken to give serious consideration to the issue.

Travellers, of course, have the same civil and political rights as other citizens under the Constitution. Moreover, 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 which are 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 apply to Travellers because the Irish legislation giving effect to those EU directives explicitly protects Travellers.

The commitment I made to give the issue of recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority further consideration led to a Conference on the subject of Ethnicity and Travellers: An Exploration being convened by the National Traveller Monitoring and Advisory Committee with support from my Department in September 2012. That Conference provided an opportunity for various aspects of the issue of ethnicity to be discussed and built on earlier discussions within the framework of National Traveller Monitoring and Advisory Committee on the issue. That Committee, as the Deputy will be aware, brings together all of the national Traveller organisations as well as senior officials from relevant Government Departments including officials from my own Department. The report from that Conference now forms part of the ongoing consideration of the issue.

My Department has in parallel been engaging with other Government Departments on the issue by way of the identifying any possible implications arising from the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic group. Those consultations are continuing and I expect them to be brought to a conclusion shortly. Those consultations will ensure that I have a full analysis of all aspects of granting of ethnic status to Travellers in framing any proposals on the matter that I may wish to bring to Government.

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