2 8 September 2016
T
he European Commission has made impres-
sive efforts to secure the wellbeing of Roma
and Travellers across the Member States. In
2011, it developed the ‘EU Framework for
National Roma Integration Strategies up to
2020’ to tackle the marginalisation and poor socio-eco
-
nomic conditions of the Roma (including Irish Travellers).
Each Member State was required to draw up a national
Roma integration strategy that set targets in education,
employment, health and housing and that allocated
sufficient funding to achieve them. The response to
date by the Irish Government has been inadequate.
The European Commission has not been impressed.
It assessed Ireland’s current strategy in 2013 and 2014
and found that Ireland only met four out of the 22 crite-
ria required. The lack of a timetable of actions, targets,
indicators and budget to secure effective implementa-
tion were highlighted. The Commission also stated that
improved consultation with Roma and Travellers was
needed. These criticisms reflected concerns Pavee
Point had been raising since 2011.
Ireland is now seeking to respond to the challenge
posed by the European Commission by developing a
new and more ambitious National Traveller and Roma
Inclusion Strategy (NTRIS). The Department of Justice
and Equality (DJE) has established a national steering
group with representatives of Traveller organisations
and Roma community members and a range of govern-
ment departments - chaired by the Minister of State. It
launched a public consultation process to develop the
new NTRIS. This was welcomed by Traveller organisa-
tions and Roma.
The preparation of NTRIS started in 2015 and involves
three phases. Phase one was an initial round of consul-
tations to identify the priority themes to be addressed
in the NTRIS. The second phase was to identify and
agree specific objectives under each of the themes
identified. The third phase is to focus on identifying
precise and measurable actions, as well as timescales
for achievement of each of the objectives that emerged
from Phase 2. On foot of this the NTRIS is to be consid-
ered by Government.
Pavee Point was commissioned, in late 2015, to com-
pile a report of the priority themes identified through a
public consultation process. Four regional consulta-
tions on NTRIS objectives were organised. These took
place in February 2016 in Dublin, Sligo, Limerick and
Athlone. A report of the feedback from the consultation
process was given to the Department in April 2016 and
Pavee Point’s work for DJE came to an end in May 2016.
The NTRIS was planned to be available by early 2016.
Unfortunately there has been slippage in the timescale
anticipated. This is largely due to change in and short-
age of personnel in DJE. There was a significant time lag
in replacing the officer who was driving this work. The
second round of consultations on the NTRIS, which
were due to take place in May 2016, had to be post-
poned. These consultations were to discuss what
actions should be included in the NTRIS under each of
the objectives identified.
Pavee Point, ITM, NTWF and Mincéir Whiden had writ-
ten to DJE urging them to postpone this second round
of consultations. They were concerned that local Trav-
eller organisations would not have sufficient time to
review the draft actions due to be discussed. The draft
actions had not yet been circulated to Traveller organi-
sations a week before these consultations were to
begin. Traveller organisations needed time to discuss
these and prepare their members to attend the consul-
tations. It was effectively impossible for groups to
prepare in advance and this would have resulted in a
tokenistic consultation process.
They were also concerned that no discussion had
taken place at steering group level about the informa-
tion gathered from the first round of consultations and
how this would be incorporated into the NTRIS. There
had to be clarity on this if Traveller organisations were
to have confidence in the consultation process. The
second round of consultations is now scheduled to take
place at the end of September, and a NTRIS steering
group meeting has been scheduled for
mid-September.
The NTRIS is an important development. It is impor-
tant that its preparation is completed quickly and with
adequate participation. It is equally important that the
NTRIS is not posed as a panacea for all Traveller and
Roma policy and programme development. To-date it
is the answer of choice in response to the many chal-
lenging questions being posed to Ireland by a range of
UN human rights monitoring mechanisms. Progress on
equality and human rights for Traveller and Roma has
been really slow. Most important of all must be to
ensure that when agreed the NTRIS is implemented and
adequate structures and processes are created to drive
its implementation. We have had good plans before that
have fallen at this key final hurdle.
Ronnie Fay is Co-Director of Pavee Point
Slow
but surer
Traveller Strategy developing
well but key is implementation
by Ronnie Fay
No discussion
had taken place
at steering group
level about the
information
gathered from
the first round of
consultations and
how this would be
incorporated into
the NTRIS
POLITICS