As a society we are used to the depiction of travellers as victims of prejudice but that is not the whole story. Two recent events remind us that there is an other side to travellers, a side which we would do well to cultivate. This is the potential for travellers to improve their own circumstances through running their own businesses and through working in services which are aimed at travellers. That most travellers live in what the rest of society would regard as hardship there is little doubt. But they are not passive victims - the dealing in scrap, in car parts, in carpets and in horses is evidence of that. Ironically, if they were content to live on the dole and do nothing they would be more acceptable to a society which doesn't like the sight of scrap and rusting cars by the roadside. A report launched in Galway last week suggests building on the traveller aptitude for enterprise by supporting the establishment of businesses by travellers.
In recent years, some businesses have been established by travellers - the Cara Park laundry in Dublin and a firm making flags and banners in Galway, for example - but the number of such new businesses is low. Yet they demonstrate that, with support in grants and training, traveller businesses could become an important feature of a better future for this section of society. That these businesses would require support there is no doubt. The traveller population is too small to provide a market for any substantial number of businesses. Selling into the settled community involves overcoming a degree of prejudice as well as meeting all the normal challenges of business. Yet progress is entirely feasible if traveller enterprises are seen as part of a social economy and as having a value which goes beyond profitability.
Another area which can be looked at - and this emerged in a second recent report - is that of the employment of travellers in services aimed at travellers. These, for example, could include pre school services. Only a handful of travellers are employed, on a part time basis, in providing such services at the moment. But why should there not be a deliberate policy of training travellers to provide these services? Such a move would make sense in itself and would create the possibility of travellers having careers in general childcare services. Pavee Point, which was involved in both of the reports mentioned here, provides an example of what is possible. Formerly the Dublin Travellers' Education and Development Group, Pavee Point employs both travellers and settled people in its work. In this way an increasing number of travellers are acquiring community development skills which they can bring to bear in their own communities - a strategy which moves from patronising travellers to empowering them.
The long term effects of the cultivation of this corps of travellers with leadership and development skills may be profound. In moving into a more assertive future, travellers will be greatly helped by the Equal Status Bill. When passed, it will enable travellers to bring their cases to an independent official if they believe they have been discriminated against and that official can order that compensation be paid. This legislation, for which the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Mr Taylor, can take much of the credit, will, when passed, be a worthy feature of a better era for travellers.
This is not to deny that the disadvantages facing travellers are enormous. Their life expectancy is short and infant mortality is high. Illiteracy is rife and few traveller children get a second level education. But while the obstacles facing travellers are very great they are not overwhelming. It is possible to move forward with hope and the Pavee Point reports have helped to show the way.