Oireachtas group calls on State to recognise Traveller ethnicity

An Oireachtas committee has formally called on the Government to recognise Traveller ethnicity for the first time.

In a report published today, the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality concludes it is "unsustainable" for the State to reject the ethnicity of Travellers.

Despite repeated recommendations from international bodies and domestic human rights groups, the State has never explicitly recognised Traveller ethnicity.

The State has argued, at various points, that ethnicity was not proven and that granting recognition would prove too costly to the State.

But committee member and Sinn Féin TD Pádraig MacLochlainn said the group had drawn on “overwhelming” evidence in favour of recognition from human rights practitioners, legal experts and Traveller groups.

“The recommendations outlined in this report should now be acted upon swiftly. It is no longer tenable to deny Traveller ethnicity,” he said.

“It is long past time for this State to fully honour our responsibilities to the international conventions on human rights and to truly value and protect our Traveller communities.”

The report calls on the Taoiseach or Minister for Justice to make a statement to the Dáil, confirming that the State, recognising Travellers as an ethnic group.

It also recommends that the Government write to relevant international bodies, confirming that it recognises Traveller ethnicity, and says the Government should examine whether any new legislation is required.

Traveller groups, who have been campaigning for such a move for almost four decades, today welcomed the report’s publication as a historic moment .

Brigid Quilligan of the Irish Traveller Movement said: "We are not speaking about major changes; we are speaking about people who have been on the island of Ireland for as long as anybody can record and recognition for the valuable contribution we have made to Irish society.

“We are talking about having our own history recorded, rather than a history that has been written for us, imposed upon us and dictated to us. We are talking about setting the record straight and supporting our people to stand tall and feel they are a valuable part of Irish society.”

The roots of the State’s refusal to refuse Traveller ethnicity appeared to stretch back to a major policy report published in 1963, the Report of the Commission of Itinerancy.

This proposed that Travellers be “absorbed” into the general community and found they did not constitute a single “homogenous group, tribe or separate ethnic group”.

But the report notes that the UK courts have recognised Irish Travellers as as an ethnic minority for more than a decade.

UK case law states that a number of conditions should be met in order to be recognised as a ethnic group, including a long, shared history which distinguishes a group from others and a cultural tradition of its own.

Committee chairman David Stanton TD said the report will be sent to the Minister for Justice, who is due to consider the recommendations.