5 times as many Travellers drop out of school
Furthermore, unemployment among Travellers is a constant 75%, according to a report from the Council of Europe.
It urges the Government to ensure Travellers are represented on the Constitutional Convention and to devise a strategy to deal with the reported “persistent discrimination” against them.
The council, charged with judging how well countries live up to their duties under human rights agreements, slates the demise, cuts in funding, and the downgrading of various bodies or programmes dealing with minority groups, human rights, racism, and equality.
The report is the third since the Convention for the Protection of National Minorities came into force in 1999. It found that efforts to deal with shortcomings in housing, education, and health among Travellers failed to improve their situation.
It points out that Travellers are still not officially recognised as an ethnic minority, leaving a question mark over their access to international non-discrimination and rights legislation.
The Government, however, has said it worked hard with Pavee Point Travellers’ Centre on that issue.
It emerged Travellers are largely without a voice as support groups have no decision-making powers.
The report also notes that the Roma population is not represented on such bodies.
It was claimed that Travellers are victims of negative stereotypes in some written and electronic media, being painted as criminals and abusers of social benefits. The media and Irish society in general place little value on them, the report suggested.
The report described the unemployment situation as “deplorable” and said the main reason was discrimination and social exclusion contributing to “low self-esteem and poor performance in education”.
The council has urged the Government to take measures to change this situation and to develop “genuine and realistic programmes to end the de facto exclusion of Travellers from the labour market”.
The school drop-out rate for Traveller children aged 15 was 63% in 2006, compared to 13% nationally while those going on to higher education was 0.8%, compared to 53% generally.
The Government, however, said the figure was now up to 3%, or 29 students, but it may be higher as some Travellers “may not identify themselves”.
About 13% of Travellers live on halting sites, 7% on unauthorised sites, and 5% — 444 families — live in what the report describes as “very precarious conditions”.
The Government said the numbers on unauthorised sites was down from 25% in 1999 to 3.5%, in spite of an increase in families. While Travellers are not considered a national minority, the Government said their special status has been recognised in legal and administration provisions designed to protect their rights and improve their position.
