CERTAIN remarks made by individuals about travellers in recent months were outrageous, the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Higgins, said yesterday.
He was speaking in Galway at the publication of a report urging support for the establishment of businesses by travellers.
"I have no hesitation in condemning any attempt to make the travelling community the scapegoat for matters which are the problems of society as a whole," the Minister said.
"Those who condemn the activities of travellers or who label travellers as one homogeneous group should bear in mind the variety and the diversity of their lives before they speak."
The report, Generating Options: A Study of Enterprise Initiatives Supported Through Traveller Organisations, is published by Pavee Point and the Galway Travellers' Support Group.
It recommends measures to promote and support the establishment of businesses by travellers. Such enterprises, it says, can provide a route into the mainstream labour force for travellers who wish to make that choice.
Ms Rachel Doyle of Galway Travellers' Support Group told The Irish Times she knew of nine enterprises run by travellers.
These include the Cara Park laundry in Dublin and Fair Green Flags and Banners in Galway.
Traveller businesses need support to make them viable, she said. As part of the Partnership 2000 programme the Department of Equality and Law Reform is to establish a working group on the social economy and Ms Doyle hoped policies arising from this will benefit traveller enterprises.
Social economy enterprises are those which make a social impact but which are not economically viable on their own, she said.
The report also calls on State agencies to develop training and education programmes to help travellers to start their own businesses.
"In the country as a whole only a small number of traveller families are economically successful," said Mr Higgins. "That is the sad fact of life. There are many large traveller families living in poverty or on extremely low incomes.
"The Employment Equality Bill proposes to prohibit discrimination both in obtaining employment and in advancing within employment on grounds of membership of the travelling community," he said. "Travellers are included specifically among a number of categories of people covered by the legislation.
He said the measure was intended to improve travellers' opportunities for employment.