Local election candidates have been urged to support a campaign to have ethnic minority status granted to Travellers.
The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) said today ethnic status would provide legal protections for Travellers in the provision of housing, education and health.
The agency, which represents up to 80 organisations and individuals working within the Traveller community in Ireland, said such status would also have implications in terms of ensuring Traveller representation in the political system.
At the launch of its local election manifesto today, director Damien Peelo said recognition as an ethnic minority group remained a “core aim” of Travellers.
Mr Peelo said the upcoming elections provided an opportunity for action on issues of concern to Travellers.
“We are asking councillors to propose and vote in favour of recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority group,” he said.
A petition calling on the Government to grant Travellers minority status, established by the ITM last December, has received the support by the Equality Authority, Amnesty International and the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism.
The Government has so far resisted calls to grant Travellers ethnic status as it believes they are not ethnically different from the majority of Irish people. It also claims they are afforded protection under anti-discrimination legislation.
In its manifesto, the ITM said there had been good progress in the number of Travellers participating in education in recent years.
But it warned the Government’s decision to reduce capitation grants for Traveller children by 50 per cent in the budget would “severely affect access for Travellers to education.”
It called on local authorities to review how schools were spending their grants, “to ensure that the funding is spent as effectively as possible”.
The agency also urged councillors to ensure the delivery of the latest Traveller accommodation programme which sets aside local authority land for serviced halting sites, group housing schemes and transient sites.
