The need to integrate members of the Travelling community in Ireland was highlighted again last week at the annual general meeting of the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM).
In a communiqué released after the meeting, the group said the inclusion of Travellers in the remit of the Office of the Minister for Integration would mark a new beginning for Irish society. It argued that for Travellers to achieve full equality in the country, the definition of ‘Traveller’ needs to be more widely articulated in national policies and programmes.
The group also used the event to reiterate their call for Travellers to be recognised as an ethnic group in Ireland. Among other things, members of the group emphasised that achieving ethnic status would “help Travellers reach their potential in order to play an active role in Irish society.”
Yet while we welcome the need for the Government to urgently recognise the Traveller community as an ethnic group, we do not believe that doing so would herald any immediate changes in the their lives. Other communities who already have ethnic status are still struggling for their rights. Ethnicity is a welcome key to equality, but it does not guarantee a level playing field for ethnic communities in Ireland.
What we desperately need is a national reorientation, and a strengthening of the laws of the land. Equal status laws need to be able to withstand legal challenges. Such, we believe, would change the age-old ‘us and them’ attitude which has been detrimental to the full inclusion of Travellers in Irish society.
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