Minister for Health Mary Harney has launched a €1.7 million all-Ireland study on the health of Travellers, who have the same life expectancy as the general population had in the 1940s.
The three-year landmark survey, the first in 20 years, is to be completed by 2010.
At its launch at Croke Park yesterday, Ms Harney said that "policy and decision making in a vacuum is inappropriate", and the results of this comprehensive study would have a major impact on health policy.
Ms Harney said 40 per cent of the Traveller community was under 15 years old compared to 20 per cent in the general population and life expectancy was like that of the general population in the 1940s.
She added that Ireland would make a major move towards equality when Travellers had the same life expectancy as the general population.
The study, which will involve peer research by Travellers, will include a full census of the Traveller community, interviews with 2,000 families about their experience of services in the past year and a look at the experience of birth and the first year of life of children, by monitoring the experience of Traveller children through the first year of life.
Missie Collins, a Traveller primary health care worker said that "we need the HSE to support us and not to stand in our way". In a passionate address at the launch Ms Collins said one of the Croke Park stands would hold all the Travellers in Ireland "so why are we such a big problem. We are Irish? It's not as if we just dropped in. We have been around for centuries."
She pointed out that Traveller child mortality is three times the norm, women have a life expectancy of 12 years less than the general population and men 10 years less. The project will examine the health status of Travellers, assess the impact of the health services currently being provided and identify the factors which influence their health status.
Jointly funded by the Department of Health and the North's Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, the study will be conducted by UCD's school of public health and population science.
Prof Cecily Kelleher, head of the school, stressed the importance of Traveller involvement in the study and said it would be conducted in stages with the census first. It will result in proper comparisons in health between the Traveller and general population, she said. "It is key that we have evidence to inform policy."
Dr Philip Crowley, deputy chief medical officer in the Department of Health, welcomed the north-south element of the study.
Dr Michael McBride, chief medical officer in the North's Department of Health said that "in Northern Ireland only 10 per cent of Travellers were over 45 years old and just 1 per cent were over 65. "We must challenge the view that the problem is too big to solve," he added.
He said the North's Minister of Health Michael McGimpsey had described the health inequity suffered by Travellers as "disturbing and unacceptable".
