Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 July 2013
428. Deputy Ciara Conway asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans to introduce legislation that will provide for the recognition of Traveller ethnicity; if he will provide an update and a timeline for same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33317/13]
View answerI would like to inform the Deputy that serious consideration is being given to this issue which remains ongoing, with a view to ensuring that full analysis of all aspects of the granting of ethnic status to Travellers is available to Government when coming to a decision on the matter. I would like to remind the house that Travellers in Ireland have the same civil and political rights as other citizens under the Constitution. The key anti-discrimination measures, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977, the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts specifically identify Travellers by name as a group protected. The Equality Act 2004, which transposed the EU Racial Equality Directive, applied all the protections of that Directive across all of the nine grounds contained in the legislation, including the Traveller community ground.
All the protections afforded to ethnic minorities in EU directives and international conventions apply to Travellers because the Irish legislation giving effect to those international instruments explicitly protects Travellers.
