Bríd Smith: Systemic discrimination against travellers must end
Bríd Smith spoke about a committee report, arguing it demonstrates absolute systemic discrimination against travellers across housing, education, health and employment. She praised the report as a data-rich tool but insisted that acting on its findings is essential to stop entrenched discrimination.
Report findings and central argument
The report gathers statistics across employment, housing, health and education that, she said, "speak for themselves" and demonstrate systemic discrimination. Smith described the report as a "really, really useful tool" and warned that without action it risks merely documenting the injustice rather than driving change.
Education and curriculum omissions
Smith highlighted a point raised by Deputy O'Cossie about the near absence of any reference to nomadic people in the school curriculum, saying that omission "speaks volumes" about institutional failure. She linked curriculum gaps to poor educational outcomes, citing a very low attainment rate and noting that "something like 60% of them leave school before the age of 13," alongside high suicide rates among traveller men.
Housing failures and Labra Park example
Drawing on her time chairing the traveller accommodation programme at Dublin City Council, she described persistent obstruction and unfulfilled promises. She pointed to Labra Park in Ballyfermot, where regeneration promised over 20 years ago for about 40 houses has shrunk to roughly 15 in 2022, and criticised claims that travellers "prefer settled accommodation" when delivery has been withheld.
Culture, politics and the need to act
Smith urged political leadership to preserve and promote traveller culture and condemned the use of election leaflets that undermine traveller communities, saying there should be laws to challenge such tactics. She stressed that unless the four categories highlighted in the report are addressed—housing, education, health and employment—failure to act will perpetuate poor outcomes, mental ill-health and systemic racism.
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Thank you very much for your report, it was so interesting working with you and well done to you. I was very interested in what Deputy O'Cossie was saying about the curriculum in the school because, I mean, first of all to say the report is a really, really useful tool. It's a rich collection of statistics all in the one space that jump out at you because the statistics, on all areas, employment, housing, health, education, really speak for themselves and explain without you having to wonder about it that there is absolute systemic discrimination against travellers in all aspects of our lives. But the thing you said there Deputy O'Cossie about trying to find a reference to nomadic people in our curriculum speaks volumes because our curriculum is designed by people who work in the Department of Education, the Department of Education, Education is run by whoever is in this house at a particular given time and if you found it difficult to find a reference then there is obviously a systemic problem within which it doesn't just fall from the sky that there is no regard for the nomadic history of the travellers in Ireland, it doesn't fall from the sky that they have a high rate of suicide among traveller men, it doesn't fall from the sky that there is a low education attainment or indeed that I think it's something like 60% of them leave school before the age of 13, which is a shocking statistic in this day and age, it might not have been 40, 50 years ago but it is now, those things have a reason, they have a systemic history and a systemic reason for them and I experienced it very much as the chairperson of the traveller accommodation programme in Dublin City Council, I chaired that for about four or five years. And it was like bashing your head off a brick wall because verbally and in body language and all the rest of it you were getting the cooperation of the council officials, they would say yes to this, they would say yes to that and we will do the other but nothing was ever achieved because at every level that you tried to move forward you were blocked from getting the progress that you needed to make. And so if you take Labra Park which we visited in Ballyfermot as part of the committee's work, that has actually gone backwards in terms of the promises that were made to it, it was promised regeneration over 20 years ago, there was a promise of 40 odd houses to be regenerated, it's going down to about 15 now in 2022, they are hopeful that they might get 15. And the consequence of that is one that the council end up saying, oh well travellers actually prefer settled accommodation, they don't really want traveller specific accommodation, travellers are being forced by virtue of the fact that the authorities are not delivering on the promises that they give for that particular accommodation to choose or to have to accept settled accommodation. It's integration by almost oppression and it is a completely wrong approach and it won't work and it will actually contribute to poor mental health, to bad outcomes, to a lack of confidence, to a lack of self-sustainability. So I think we ourselves in every aspect of the work that we do as given political leadership need to be so conscious of that and never ever again should we see a political leaflet used to gather support or votes in any kind of an election by undermining the traveller community in the local area. That should never ever again and it has happened and if it does happen there should be laws there to challenge it. But I do think that the report itself is really, really important but as the previous deputy said acting on it is even more important. because after all if we don't do that then all we're doing is perpetuating the systemic racism that exists in our society that from the sort of very roots of where we try to make change we're actually prohibiting and inhibiting that change. I just think it's also so important for us to recognise on a historical level the role that the traveller community have played in enriching our culture, our music, our diversity and our language and to set that aside and say it doesn't matter is to be soulless, is to disregard what we as a population are made of and the traveller community and their culture is a huge part of that. So I think there needs to be an aspect of this that looks into how we preserve that culture, how we promote it and how we give if you like more than just lip service to it by saying aren't they wonderful actors, singers, dancers or whatever. But fundamentally if we don't change the conditions under which they live and really take seriously the problems in all the four categories that are highlighted in this report then we will be failing yet again and I sincerely hope we don't.
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