ti-Traveller prejudice remains
According to a recent survey conducted throughout the 26
Counties, general attitudes towards the Travelling Community have
not changed in recent times. MICHAEL PIERSE talks to Martin
Collins of the Pavee Point centre in Dublin about why Travellers
remain marginalised, and how that situation can be reversed.
Michael Pierse: What is the work of the Pavee Point? How has it
been successful?
Martin Collins: Pavee Point is an organisation of Travellers and
settled people, committed to achieving human rights for Irish
Travellers. We say that real improvement in Travellers' living
circumstances and social situation requires the active
involvement of Travellers themselves. We also say that
non-Travellers have a responsibility to address the processes
that serve to exclude Travellers from participating as equals in
Irish society.
Pavee Point (and the Dublin Travellers' Education Development
Group - as it was formerly known) has been successful in
spearheading a Traveller movement. This has resulted in the
establishment of three national Traveller organisations and over
60 local Traveller organisations. These organisations in turn
have facilitated Traveller representation on national and local
committees involved in advancing Traveller issues.
In the last 15 years, due to the lobbying of Traveller
organisations, government policy has shifted away from
assimilation and towards acknowledging cultural diversity. There
is now a statutory National Traveller Accommodation Consultative
Committee. There is also the Traveller Health Advisory Committee
and an Education Advisory Committee.
Last year, the Equal Status Act was enacted. Travellers are a
named group in this legislation and for the first time Travellers
have been given the means to challenge discrimination.
Despite these policy and legislative developments, Travellers'
living circumstances have not improved. The failure of the 1998
Traveller Accommodation Act to deliver means that there are now
more Traveller families living on the side of the road, without
access to basic facilities, than there were in the 1960s.
Discrimination is still a daily occurrence for Travellers on both
an individual and an institutional level.
AP: The Dublin government has spent £900,000 over three years on
its `Citizen Traveller' campaign, yet according to the recent
National Attitudes to Travellers and Minority Groups survey,
there has been little change in the general perception of the
Travelling community. Why is this the case?
MC: I would suggest that it is naïve to think that a two-year
campaign, featuring intermittent posters and some radio ads, can
reverse the entrenched and ingrained views and prejudices that
exist towards Travellers.
Reversing age-old prejudices is a long-term job of work. Citizen
Traveller is just one part of a bigger strategy to change
people's attitudes.
AP: There has been much use made by those who would blame
societal prejudice against Travellers mostly on Travellers
themselves, of the state in which a GAA pitch in Ballyboden,
Dublin, was left by Travelling people in recent weeks. The
clean-up bill cost the local county council £40,000. Can you
honestly expect local people to welcome Travellers with open arms
in light of this behaviour?
MC: Pavee Point does not condone illegal dumping, whether that
dumping is carried out by Travellers or by settled people. Any
person found to be illegally dumping should be prosecuted. From
the government's recent national anti-litter campaign, it is
obvious that as a nation we have a dumping and litter problem.
While acknowledging that there is a minority of Travellers who
have dumped illegally, it is also important to acknowledge that
settled people dump at Traveller sites and trailers, knowing that
Travellers will be blamed.
However, if there was no Traveller dumping, settled people would
still object to Travellers being in their neighbourhoods. The
rubbish issue has often become a pretext, whereby settled people
seek to justify their prejudice against Travellers.
The majority of Travellers are very responsible in terms of
disposing of their rubbish - and this is often in difficult
circumstances, without proper access to refuse services. The
1,100 Traveller families forced to park illegally need to be
facilitated with serviced sites, so they can avail of refuse
services and other services.
AP: Some people perceive Travellers as parasites, making a
fortune and living in the lap of luxury. What is the reality for
Travelling people living in Celtic Tiger Ireland?
MC: It seems that the Celtic Tiger must also have a prejudice
against Travellers. Even with the labour shortages that Ireland
is experiencing, Irish Travellers have not been able to access
jobs due to high levels of discrimination. This is shown by the
fact that Travellers are becoming a larger proportion of the
long-term unemployed than previously.
The Department of Environment and Local Government have made it
clear that the financing of Traveller accommodation is not a
problem. The problem is at local level. Local authorities are
unable or unwilling to deliver the accommodation. Poor
accommodation obviously has knock-on effects for Traveller
health. The latest health statistics show that Irish Traveller
men live ten years less than settled men and that Traveller women
live twelve years less than settled women.
AP: Traveller representatives have said that the power to build
halting sites should be taken away from local authorities and
decided centrally by the Dublin government. But will that not
just encourage greater polarisation between Travellers and local
communities? Is there a more imaginative way of implementing
change?
MC: Over the last ``0 years, various different approaches have
been tried. All failed miserably. Local government has been
unwilling or unable to deliver the accommodation that is
desperately needed.
Catholics in Northern Ireland were unable to get adequate housing
until the establishment of the Northern Ireland Housing
Executive. Local councils deprived Catholics of adequate housing
in Northern Ireland due to prejudice and sectarianism.
We see the establishment of an agency along the lines of the
Northern Ireland Housing Executive as the best hope for Traveller
accommodation.
Residents' associations and local councillors will block
Traveller accommodation on the basis of false fears and
prejudice. The facts show that once Traveller accommodation is
delivered, the problems that settled people expect don't
materialise.
AP: What exactly should the authorities, north and south, be
doing to change mindsets in relation to the Travelling community?
MC: We believe that politicians should be leading and shaping
public opinion rather than reacting to it. Often politicians will
use the race card to get voted in at elections or will make
discriminatory remarks reflecting the views of their electorate.
This should change and political parties need to bring in
disciplinary measures to curtail their members who engage in
racist activities or who indulge in incitement to hatred.