The gap between national policy development on Travellers and local and national implementation remains to be addressed, writes Brid O'Brien
It is interesting how language changes over time and yet the analysis and thinking that produced it remains unchanged.Felim O'Rourke notes in his article (The Irish Times, December 4th,) that the thinking in the 1980s, which was evident in the 1995 taskforce report on Travellers, "replaced the objective of full integration of Travellers into the community".
Let us be very clear there was no such objective; there was a presumption that Travellers were failed settled people who, with the right encouragements, would fade back into the majority population without a trace.
This policy of assimilation was very explicit in the days of the Commission on Itinerancy and became less so in later decades. Yet despite an overarching recommendation in the 1995 report "that the distinct culture and identity of the Traveller community be recognised and taken into account", no mechanism was put in place to ensure this happened. And most Travellers feel that subsequent policies and practices have continued to undermine their culture and identity.
Mr O'Rourke has confused the success of Traveller organisations in getting the State to change how it expresses its policies on Travellers with actual recognition in that regard. For example, the current National Action Plan for Inclusion aims to "further develop policies with the necessary supports to enable Travellers achieve greater integration while respecting their distinctive way of life".
Such an aspiration would be wonderful, but this action plan was drafted when the State was contemplating the criminalisation of trespass, which basically killed any prospect of a nomadic expression of Travellers' culture stone dead. This piece of legislation gave gardaí and local authorities extraordinary powers of eviction whereby Traveller families have found themselves fined and homeless because they had nowhere to park their trailers, which were then confiscated.
This scenario is arising because the State has made no provision for nomadism; they did not follow the recommendations of the 1995 report to provide a network of transient sites.
With regard to the labour market, it should be noted that discrimination is a huge issue for Travellers. Contrary to the impression Felim gives, Fás has played an active role in supporting Traveller organisations to develop a range of second-chance and employment opportunities for Travellers.
One of the most successful initiatives is the primary healthcare work piloted by Pavee Point and now replicated around the country in more than 40 projects. At the base of this work has been a three-way partnership between Traveller organisations, the health boards and Fás. More recently, Fás has led an initiative to support wider employment opportunities for Travellers.
A key element of this work in two of the pilot areas has been the provision of enterprise supports to Travellers who wish to formalise their own business.
On the issue of integration, Traveller organisations have been very clear that integration will work only in tandem with an intercultural and anti-racist approaches.
Interculturalism focuses on the central importance of culture in all of our lives and the challenges presented when there is cultural diversity and one culture's norms dictate societal norms. To confuse integration with assimilation, as Felim does, is fundamentally wrong, as is to assume that difference can only be expressed negatively.
Felim notes "that the greatest social exclusion that exists in Ireland is among groups with the highest unemployment". This is very much a chicken-and-egg scenario. Yet when one looks in any depth at a community as excluded as Travellers, it becomes apparent that Travellers are unemployed because of this social exclusion.
This dynamic is particularly apparent when one looks at work which Travellers initiate themselves, which is marginal and receives little support. As the European Union Green Paper on entrepreneurship noted: "Ethnic minority businesses in Europe display a strong entrepreneurial capacity and potential . . . many are concentrated in low-entry threshold activities and have difficulty in breaking out of these . . . they seem to benefit less than average from public business support services."
Contrary to the impression given by Felim, nomadism does not contribute to social exclusion. What contributes to the exclusion is the inability of the wider society to adapt to include it. This is a considerable challenge, as is evident by the difficulties facing disabled people in accessing premises without assistance, even though, with the Celtic Tiger, Ireland has been effectively rebuilt. This situation persists even though the issue of disability clearly enjoys popular support not evident on Traveller issues.
To blame nomadism for poor relationships between the two communities is naive in the extreme; there are countless examples of Travellers living in standard and mixed housing for generations who are excluded from local jobs, education/training and social activities.
In an increasingly diverse and wealthy Ireland, it should not be beyond us to develop inclusive policies and practices that ensure the culture and identity of the most marginalised community in this country is finally recognised and supported.
As the findings of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities noted: "In the area of accommodation, promising plans have been put in place, but their implementation remains uneven.
"Travellers continue to face significant problems also in the field of education, where the planned strategy, coupled with an implementation plan, needs to be launched and monitored rapidly. There have been a number of positive examples of Travellers' participation in decision-making, but certain new structures, such as the High Level Group on Travellers, should step up their efforts to involve Travellers in their work."
The gap between national policy development and local and national implementation remains to be addressed.
• Brid O'Brien is policy officer with Pavee Point, the Dublin-based organisation that seeks to promote Travellers' rights and foster better relations between Travellers and the rest of the community