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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 2 May 1996

Vol. 464 No. 8

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Travelling Community Recommendations.

Helen Keogh

Question:

3 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform the monitoring procedures, if any, he intends to put in place to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on the Travelling Community: and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8866/96]

As the recommendations contained in the report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community impact on a wide range of policy areas which are the responsibility of a number of Ministers, the Government established an interdepartmental working group to consider its implementation.

The report of the interdepartmental working group was considered by Government on 26 March 1996 and a strategy was approved as a response to the report of the task force.

This Government strategy contained a range of initiatives which included the setting up of a special unit in the Department of the Environment to monitor the implementation of the five-year strategy for traveller accommodation put forward by the Minister for the Environment. It approved in principle, inter alia, the construction of 3,100 units of traveller accommodation and the proposals put forward by the Departments of Health and Education in the context of the report of the interdepartmental working wroup. The timing and phasing of the implementation of the elements of the Government strategy would be agreed with the Minister for Finance.

What is necessary now, and what I understand is happening, is that relevant Departments are finalising plans of action with the object of securing the financial allocations necessary to implement their respective elements of the Government strategy. While it is a matter for each Minister to evaluate progress in the areas for which he or she is responsible, I will, of course, maintain an active interest in how the implementation process develops. I am committed to the achievement of the targets contained in the Government strategy relating to the report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community.

Everybody found the discussion on the report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community very helpful. Would the Minister consider having the type of monitoring system that is in place for implementing the recommendations of the Second Commission on the Status of Women put in place to implement the task force report? I am aware of the special unit in the Department of the Environment dealing with traveller issues, but we are talking about wide-ranging plans and I believe their implementation should be co-ordinated. Does the Minister accept that he is ideally placed to co-ordinate this, not merely having a watching brief but reporting on it on a regular basis? Will he indicate whether that is possible?

I do not think the position is quite comparable to the report of the Second Commission on the Status of Women and the monitoring arrangements we have in connection with that. The bases are somewhat different.

The report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community makes suggestions in section (k) on the co-ordination and implementation of the report. It provides that the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, as part of his or her responsibility for co-ordinating Government policy in relation to traveller issues, should monitor and co-ordinate the implementation of the recommendations contained in the report. As I said earlier, I will maintain an active interest in the development of the implementation process but it will be a matter primarily for the individual Departments and their own programmes. The Minister for Health will have responsibility in the health area, the Minister for Education in the education area and, of course, the Minister for the Environment will have responsibility in the environment area, which is the big one. They will have their own independent monitoring groups within the Departments for that purpose and they will monitor what is happening on the ground in the various local authority areas.

From time to time Deputies will be able to raise with each of the Ministers concerned the progress of these plans in the context of their own departmental responsibilities. My role will be that of maintaining an active interest across the spectrum, watching how the implementation process develops and helping in any way I can. The funding and operation of the development schemes, as recommended in the task force report, will be dealt with by the individual Departments which have skilled people to do that.

I know the Minister will hold a watching brief and I accept that. I realise that different types of tasks are involved in the implementation of the task force's recommendations and those of the Second Commission on the Status of Women. Nevertheless, I submit to the Minister that there is a danger of fragmentation in the implementation of the recommendations. While it may be relatively easy, because of the special unit being set up in the Department of the Environment, to ensure that the strategy in relation to accommodation is implemented, I am afraid that we may not get the necessary commitment in the other areas. Knowing the Minister's commitment, I wonder if he would consider publishing a report from time to time on the implementation of the recommendations of the task force. He may not want to give a specific answer now.

I submitted, for priority answer, a question relating to the equal status legislation which is very pertinent to the issues in the task force's report. It underlines, as the Minister rightly pointed out, the importance of the equal status Bill for the travelling people. Unfortunately the question was disallowed because of repetition. The answer I received was that no further progress had been made since the last time I submitted a question of this type, which would have been the previous occasion on which we had Equality and Law Reform Question Time.

This is very pertinent to the issue of travellers and the task force recommendations. Can the Minister reassure me about its progress?

The progress of what exactly?

The equal status legislation.

The equal status Bill is currently being drafted. The position remains the same. I hope to have it published towards the end of the current year.

I do not accept that there need be or will be fragmentation in the implementation of the report on the travelling community. The areas of responsibility in the departmental categories are quite clear and firmly established. The principal Departments involved are Environment, Health and Education but others are also involved. I will be directly answerable in respect of items such as the equal status legislation, employment equality and so on. The other Departments will set up their own programmes.

The primary object of the Department of the Environment is the provision of 3,100 units over the period of the plan. There will be a special unit within that Department and it will be open to Deputy Keogh and others to raise questions on the progress there from time to time. I am sure that it will be possible for the House to devise some arrangements, perhaps on an annual basis, to review and debate overall progress, just as we are debating the report at the moment. I will be happy to have an eye to progress generally across the spectrum of the recommendations in the report. Ministers themselves will be answerable to the House for their own areas of responsibility.

I appreciate the Minister's remarks. It would be helpful if the type of monitoring requested in the task force report was of an active nature. We would appreciate his remarks in that regard. If we had a regular report, as he has indicated, it would be very helpful.

That matter can certainly be considered.

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