If the issue of Travellers was easy to resolve, it would have been decades ago. But it has become so controversial, so divisive, that large numbers of people in both the settled community and the Traveller community have long since set their faces against trying to do anything to improve matters.
For these people, the issue is simply ignored - something that is not up for discussion, let alone action. Such counsel must not, however, be allowed hold sway.
A study published yesterday shows that half of the Travellers whose deaths were reported to the Parish of the Travelling People in Dublin over a 10-year period (between 1995 and 2004) died before they reached 39 years of age. The parish was established in 1980 under the direction of the Vincentian Order.
The report, which is neither scientific nor all-embracing of Travellers living in Ireland or the Traveller population of the greater Dublin region, finds that 80 per cent of the Travellers whose deaths were studied died before they were 65 years of age. Of the deaths studied, cancer was the most common cause for females and road traffic accidents the most common cause for males.
This report would not stand up to scientific scrutiny. But there is no doubt that it provides a snapshot of the Traveller lifestyle, albeit in a limited way. How can it be that in the 21st century, in an Ireland ranked at the very top of a range of wealth indicators, there is a definable community with a lesser life expectancy? Life expectancy at birth for Irish people in general is 75.2 years for men and 80.7 years for women.
The Parish of the Travelling People is an initiative of the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, set up 25 years ago by Archbishop Ryan to provide pastoral services for Travellers and funding for the Vincentian Fathers who run the parish. The research base (255 deaths among Travellers in Dublin between 1995 and 2004) is not huge but there is no reason to doubt the essential accuracy of the results. While some causes of death among Travellers mirror causes among the general population (notably heart disease and cancer), death for Travellers comes earlier. Other causes (road crashes, other accidents and suicide) seem more deeply rooted in Traveller lifestyle.
The Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, noted yesterday that the report underlined that Travellers continued to be "among the most disadvantaged groups in our society". The statistics were those of a people living in a Third World country. It is clear that efforts to improve the lot of a section of our community - some 30,000 people - have a very long way to go.