Vol. 431 No. 6
14 Mr. Molloy asked the Minister for Equality and Law Reform if he has studied the recent report Changing Needs of Irish Travellers: Health, Education and Social Issues; and if so, the action, if any, he proposes to take in regard to the recommendations made in that report.
I have seen the report to which the Deputy refers. Under the Programme for a Partnership Government, I have been entrusted with responsibility for articulating and co-ordinating the implementation of Government policy in relation to travellers.
The programme provides that in discharging this role I will be assisted by a task force whose terms of reference will include monitoring and pursuing implementation of Government policy on travellers. The task force will replace the existing monitoring committee.
On 27 May 1993, I announced the appointment of Deputy Liz McManus as chairperson of the Government Task Force on the Travelling Community.
I expect to complete membership of the task force shortly. It will then be able to commence its work on advising me on planning the implementation of a coordinated national policy in relation to travellers. The task force will include travellers, representatives of groups working with travellers, local councillors and officers from the relevant Government Departments, as well as a senior official from a local authority.
I have given the task force wide-ranging terms of reference which will encompass the issues examined in the report. No doubt the task force will take the report into account in its deliberations. Pending receipt of the recommendations of the task force, I have emphasised to local authorities that they must proceed with and extend where appropriate the services for travellers for which they are responsible. Government Departments will also be proceeding with the current programme for travellers.
I note that the Minister said he had seen the report but he did not say he had read it. Will the Minister not accept that this survey of travelling families in the west of Ireland makes shocking reading? The report says, for example, that 61 per cent of the couples surveyed were involved in consanguineous marriages, so in-breeding is a major problem resulting in many genetic disorders in children. About 20 per cent of the travelling children surveyed in County Galway had serious hearing impairments. This is perhaps the only real survey of the difficulties experienced by travelling families. In the light of the shocking findings, will the Minister ensure that we can take steps in the short term pending the report of the task force, in order to deal with some of the obvious problems? Will the Minister consider, for example, providing genetic counselling and a proper family planning service for travelling families? The survey showed that 28 per cent of all travelling families included more than ten members, even though the mothers were very young, teenage mothers in some cases. In the short term will the Minister provide genetic counselling and a comprehensive family planning service, including advice and family planning devices and so on, to travelling families?
I have read the report. As Deputy Harney says, many of its findings are of singular concern. I am sure the report will have the immediate attention of the task force. On the issue of genetic counselling and family planning, I will consult with the Minister for Health to see what can be done in that regard. This report was presented to the Minister for Health.
In relation to the protection of children which has been a source of much debate recently, would the Minister not agree that, although we all agree that the travelling community have rights as an ethnic minority the State must intervene to protect children? This report shows that many travelling children are at risk of neglect by virtue of their habitat and the way they live. Health care services should be put in place immediately along with a domiciliary service for infants and young children in the travelling community.
I absolutely agree. On all of those issues I will consult with the Minister for Health. Happily, the Government has made £5 million available in 1993 to implement the Child Care Act. I am sure an appreciable proportion of that will be relevant to the children of travelling families. With that money major advances should be possible in 1993.
Will the Minister agree that from the report it appears that in nearly 90 per cent of travelling families in the west where marriages occur the participants share a great grandparent or a grandparent? It appears from page 34 of the report that a travelling child is 20 times more likely to be profoundly deaf than an ordinary child and eight times more likely to be referred for evaluation in respect of mental handicap. Does this not mean that there is a huge urgency now to offer those services, and not just to consult with the Minister for Health about it? We need to do something positive to assist young travellers who are about to be married and to advise them of the enormous implications of these disturbing figures.
I agree that they are disturbing figures. Many of the findings are a matter of grave concern. It is not just a matter of consulting with the Minister for Health. This report was presented to the Minister for Health and I am quite sure he and his officials are taking the appropriate steps in connection with it. They will be all the better able to do that now by reason of the additional £5 million for child care which has been provided by the Government.
That is being used for so many things.
I will consult with the Minister from time to time to find out what progress is being made. I am sure the task force under Deputy McManus will be actively involved in the issue as well.
