Travellers' livelihoods are threatened by recent legislation on the control of horses and open-air markets, increased urbanisation and restricted access to landfill sites, a report on the economic activity of the social group in Limerick says.
Paving the Way to a Brighter Future highlights the lack of awareness Travellers have of State agencies but, equally, how ill equipped those agencies are to meet the special needs of the Republic's estimated 25,000 Travellers. The report is to be used as a guide for identifying the types of training and supports Travellers need and for identifying possibilities in enterprise development and training.
Literacy levels are a major impediment to availing of grants or other agency supports or to taking up employment, say the report's authors, Ms Patricia Doyle and Ms Bridget O'Donoghue, both Travellers, who carried out the research as part of a Community Employment Scheme.
Only 58 per cent of the Travellers surveyed attended primary school up to sixth class, and 72 per cent were unemployed, a rate 12 times greater than the regional average. Less than half of those surveyed had completed a FAS training programme, but this was confined to non-certified basic training courses "with little if any progression routes".
About 20 per cent of Limerick's 74 Traveller families were surveyed, including two focus groups of women and teenagers. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, who introduced the report, described the findings on the social and economic barriers which Travellers face as "disturbing".
The Government, she said, was committed to creating a cohesive society in which all groups had access to accommodation, education and employment. "In recent years we have succeeded in creating unprecedented prosperity in this country. The challenge now is to ensure that all of society can share in that prosperity and avail of the new opportunity that success has brought," she said.
The Traveller economy is described as "a family-oriented economy based on income-generation as opposed to wage-earning" and includes such activities as recycling, horse dealing, market trading, and sales activities. It requires adequate space on halting sites or in housing schemes.
However, it does not provide a full or steady living for participants and is threatened by the Control of Horses Act, 1996, which created exclusion areas for the animals and required that they be licensed and have accommodation complying with regulations.
Many horses are kept as an asset but "given that the requirements for keeping a horse in Limerick city are so stringent, it is unreasonable to expect Travellers, who do not have adequate accommodation for themselves, to have such resources to accommodate a horse". The 1995 Casual Trading Act has excluded Travellers from open-air markets because of high start-up costs and licensing fees, excessive documentation and discrimination by local authorities. Ms Brid O'Brien, manager of the Traveller Economy Programme with Pavee Point, the Traveller awareness organisation, was on the report's steering committee.
She says the effect of needing a trading licence for each local authority area instead of one generic one is to price the trader who moves from market to market out of existence. "Also there is not a positive environment around casual trading. Markets have been moved to less accessible areas."
Landfill sites are increasingly inaccessible, which militates against the recycling of scrap metal and other materials. Limerick city dump is closed, and in the county there is no access to landfill sites. "This places a major obstacle in the way of the Traveller economy and has implications for recycling in the Irish economy in general," the report says.
Apart from the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, the corporation and county council and FAS, awareness of agencies was poor. Agencies such as the Centre for the Unemployed, Shannon Development, the Limerick City Enterprise Board, a part sponsor of the project, and the Local Employment Service scored a 7 per cent awareness rating.
Ms Ann McKeon, of the Limerick Local Employment Service, who was also on the steering committee, says a member of the Travellers Development Group is now on the LES management committee. "Traveller issues will be on the agenda," she says.
It's all a long way from the simmering row in Ennis, 20 miles away, where 10 Traveller families living outside the main entrance to the GAA sports ground, Cusack Park, were removed after the GAA County Board was granted an injunction this week. There has been no permanent halting site in the town since 1997 and none is expected before the end of 2002.