Áine Ryan
THE sense of ‘respect and inclusion’ engendered by Government recognition of Irish Travellers’ distinct ethnicity has been welcomed by the Mayo Traveller Support Group (MTSG), which says it will have a positive impact on the 393 Traveller families living in Co Mayo.
Responding to a series of questions by The Mayo News, MTSG Project Co-Ordinator Pippa Daniel said the group was ‘delighted’ at Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s formal recognition of Traveller ethnicity, announced last week in the Dáil.
“MTSG would like to acknowledge the many years of campaigning and lobbying by members of the Traveller community and Traveller organisations to get to this day,” Ms Daniel said. Adding that those groups ‘have never given up fighting for the community’s right’, she said that last week’s announcement is about ‘recognising the dignity of their culture and acknowledging the valuable contributions Travellers have made and will continue to make to Irish society’.
Mr Daniel explained that discrimination has a negative impact on the daily lives of Travellers – particularly their health and wellbeing.
“The 2010 All Ireland Traveller Health (AITHS) highlighted suicide in the Traveller community as being six times higher than the general population and seven times higher amongst Traveller males compared to the settled male population. Recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority also means that the community will automatically be included in anti-racism and integration policies and initiatives, which MTSG hope will be a positive step to addressing discrimination and so improving the quality of Travellers lives,” she said.
Ms Daniel also confirmed that MTSG has been involved in the consultation phases of the National Traveller Roma Inclusion strategy, which is due to be published soon.
“The strategy will set out a range of actions across the determinants of health, and MTSG hopes that with adequate resources the strategy will start to address the findings of the AITHS and the needs of the Roma community,” she said.
Asked by The Mayo News what were the biggest challenges facing Travellers in Mayo, she highlighted ‘accessing accommodation’.
“Homelessness affects all communities, and with a reliance on the private rented sector to provide accommodation, Travellers are finding it virtually impossible to secure tenancies. This has led to an increase of Travellers moving into trailers or caravans, as they have no choice, often living with no access to any basic services such as water, electricity or sewerage. This is a very different issue to living in a trailer or caravan on a serviced Halting Site as part of a local authority Traveller Accommodation Plan,” she explained.
Taoiseach’s speech
SPEAKING in the Dáil last week, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said: “Our Traveller Community is an integral part of our society for over a millennium, with their own distinct identity – a people within our people. I have to say it a great pleasure for me to be the person that has the honour of making this statement.
“I must acknowledge David Stanton, Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, and the national Traveller organisations who undertook substantial work to bring clarity to the debate.
“Together we agreed that recognition of Travellers could have a transformative effect on relations between Travellers and the wider society, and will create no new individual, constitutional or financial rights… We recognise the inequalities and discrimination that the Traveller community faces and have a range of special programmes and interventions. The development of the new National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy will build on this.
“As Taoiseach I wish to now formally recognise Travellers as a distinct ethnic group within the Irish nation. It is a historic day for our Travellers and a proud day for Ireland.”
MORE ‘Girlhood’, a photographic exhibition focusing on the life of girls and women in one of Mayo’s Travelling families, opens in Ballina this week. See Living, page 33.
