Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 30 April 2014
588. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality if he will implement the recommendations of the report that was presented to the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality in relation to recognising Traveller ethnicity, which has an added urgency in view of the increase in racism towards this section of society. [19365/14]
View answerI welcome the publication of the Report on the Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity by the Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality.
The Deputy will be aware from my reply to questions on this subject, including most recently my reply to a Parliamentary Question on 10th December 2013 (reference 52666/13), that I have previously undertaken to give serious consideration to the issue. My reply of 10th December also explained that my consideration of the issue will take account of the report of the Conference on the subject of Ethnicity and Travellers:An Exploration held in September 2012 and the outcome of an ongoing engagement with other Government Departments on the issue with a view to identifying any possible implications arising from the recognition of Travellers as an ethnic group. The Joint Committee's Report, which is being examined by my Department, will now also clearly form part of that consideration.
I hope that the examination of all relevant issues will be brought to a conclusion shortly, facilitating a full analysis of all aspects of granting ethnic status to Travellers to inform any proposals on the matter that I may wish to bring to Government.
Travellers have the same civil and political rights as other citizens under the Constitution and all the protections afforded to ethnic minorities in EU directives apply to Travellers because the Irish legislation giving effect to those EU directives explicitly protects Travellers. For example, the key anti-discrimination measures, the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989, the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977, the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts specifically identify Travellers by name as a group which are protected. The Equality Act 2004, which transposed the EU Racial Equality Directive, applied all the protections of that Directive across all the nine grounds contained in the legislation, including the Traveller community ground.
