Treatment of Travellers condemned

EUROPE'S human rights' watchdog has condemned Ireland's treatment of Travellers and other minority groups.

The Council of Europe said Travellers, in particular, were not benefiting from Ireland's growing wealth.

The highly influential Council, the Continent's oldest political organisation, was also critical of gardaí and recommended setting up an independent body to investigate complaints against the force.

Its report focused on the growing number of incidents of discrimination and racism against immigrants and Travellers by the public and the gardaí.

The Strasbourg-based council is planning to organise a follow-up meeting in Ireland with the relevant authorities and Traveller representatives to discuss how best to tackle the problems.

The Council said Travellers' traditional areas of employment have disappeared and they have not received the necessary education and training to improve their prospects of work.

It also stated Travellers, with poor health and life expectancy, had little or no participation in much of Irish social or political life, with minimal representation in public office.

The report noted the Government had adopted policies to help Travellers but they had not been implemented. An example was accommodation and the provision of transient sites, the report said.

Catherine Joyce, co-ordinator of the Irish Traveller Movement, said yesterday: "The report confirms the difficulties we have been trying to combat for years in terms of discrimination against Travellers and in access to suitable accommodation."

She said the Government had "failed miserably" in its programme for Traveller accommodation.

However, a Department of Environment spokesperson said 1,824 permanent and transient accommodation units had been provided for Travellers since 1995.

Ms Joyce claimed the emphasis on providing local authority housing had caused Travellers to be dispersed from their extended families, which added to their isolation in society.

She said Travellers hoped the Council's report would put pressure on the Government to implement its Traveller policies.