At the present rate of progress, the target of meeting by the year 2000 the accommodation needs of travellers will only be met in 33 years, the conference was told.
Ms Brigid Clarke, who has been a social worker with travellers for three years, said there was a much higher proportion of temporary halting sites in Dublin than elsewhere in the State.
One Dublin county council had spent almost £500,000 preventing travellers from settling in its area, through moving them on, placing boulders and taking court cases, she claimed.
She cited the statistics for mortality, infant mortality and accommodation standards, and the recent research on prejudice carried out by Father Micheal McGreil to show how travellers were discriminated against. "The relationship of a prejudiced majority to a powerless minority means travellers can't see social services working for them," she said.
Yet travellers were far more "social-worked" than the settled community. There were 60 social workers allocated to them, a proportion of one social worker for every 83 traveller families.
The ratio for the settled community in the Eastern Health Board area was one social worker for every 1,000 families.
Ms Stacia Crickley of St Patrick's College, Maynooth, said this was because social workers were allocated to travellers by local authorities to deal with their accommodation problems.
They had to deal with a separate set of social workers in the health boards when questions like child welfare arose.
Travellers' specific needs were not taken into account in social work practice, Ms Clarke said. For example, there is no system within the health boards for the transfer of medical records from one health board area to another.
One in 10 of the children in care in Co Kerry come from travelling background. "When they come out of care they don't know who they are," she said. There was a need for social workers to understand their actions in the context of the culture of the child, she said.
Some travellers had adjusted better than others to the changes in their lifestyle brought about by the mechanisation of agriculture and the move to the cities. However, it was those who had not so adjusted who were more likely to end up as clients of the social services. This often resulted in problems like alcoholism and violence.
Social workers and other professionals should have specific training with members of the travelling community to sensitise them to their culture, she said. There was also a need for social work practice to be based on the principles of human rights.
Mr John O'Connell, director of Pavee Point, said his organisation had brought a group of travellers to talk to garda recruits in Templemore. This followed discussions between Pavee Point and Mr Pat Byrne, the Garda Commissioner. It is hoped to have four sessions a year in which groups of travellers speak to garda recruits.
He said relations between gardai and travellers are improving, due to such initiatives and the participation of the gardai in things like summer projects for children.