The Irish Traveller community is still among the most marginalised and disadvantaged in the country, with many living in "appalling" conditions similar to the Ireland of the 1940s, a media workshop was told in Limerick yesterday.
Travellers still suffered discrimination, infant mortality was more than twice the national average and only 1 per cent of Travellers reached 65 years. The Minister for Health was told he should adopt a "culturally appropriate" national Traveller health strategy, set up a Traveller health unit with adequate resources and monitor spending on Traveller health within the health boards.
Ms Jacinta Brack, director of Citizen Traveller, a three-year communication campaign funded by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, said education would play a key role in the future lives of Travellers. Only a handful of Travellers had graduated from third-level institutions and fewer than 1,000 had transferred to post-primary schools. The workshop was organised by Citizen Traveller, which is a campaign established to try to create a better understanding between the settled and Traveller communities.
Traveller infant mortality was 18.1 per 1,000 against 7.4 per 1,000 for the national population. Stillbirths were double the national rate and Travellers had an average life expectancy 10 to 12 years less than the national population.
The report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community, published five years ago, had recommended 3,100 units of additional specific Traveller accommodation be provided by the year 2000, but to date only 99 such units had been provided. Travellers had poor access to health information and education materials, and ineffective record-keeping systems between the health boards often meant health cards were not recognised and treatment was refused, the workshop was told.
Mr John Murphy, of the Limerick Travellers Development Group, said that when the task force report was published it was hailed as a new beginning, giving hope to the Traveller community. "Five years on, we can see that very little progress has been made," he said.
"If the Government and its departments are serious about addressing the deplorable situation Travellers find themselves in, and we assume they are, they must display this commitment in real terms," Mr Murphy said. That meant full implementation of the report of the task force, as had been hoped for and expected five years ago.
Failure by local government to implement the basic recommendations of the report had served "to further alienate and exclude Travellers from Irish society".
While progress had been made regarding the legal framework to address discrimination, it still took different forms. A recent survey by Citizen Traveller revealed 32 per cent of people believed Travellers were treated worse than average by the courts and 42 per cent believed they were treated worse than the average by gardai.