Deprived Travellers - Tailor-made training courses vital

Half a century ago, this country had one of the highest infant mortality rates in the civilised world. This year our rate was as much as 10 times lower than that of the United States, one of the most affluent countries. This was graphic example of what can be done, if the Government is determined to address a problem.

For too long there has been no real effort to address the problems of Travellers, and this is an indictment, not just of the Government, but also of our whole society.

People do not want Travellers in their neighbourhoods or schools, or bars. Many consider the Travellers anti-social, but the reality is that society as a whole excludes Travellers and the anti-social behaviour of some of them is therefore understandable.

There are about 24,000 Travellers in this country, and 90% of them are unemployed.

Their situation is actually getting worse. With higher educational skills required by our Celtic Tiger economy, poorly educated Travellers are becoming even more marginalised.

They cannot even get into job training courses because of discrimination and apathy in official circles, on top of their own lack of knowledge of the opportunities that should be available to them.

The Equality Authority has found that training bodies like FÁS, CERT, Teagasc, Coillte and the Vocational Education Committees had few programmes or policies to cater for members of the Travelling community and rarely even try to encourage Travellers to participate in their courses.

When Travellers get into courses, they are grouped together without regard for the level of education or the particular skills of different individuals in comparison with the settled participants. This naturally contributes to the sense of discouragement, fuelled by a pervasive feeling of being discriminated against.

Many Travellers are unaware of training opportunities, because these are only advertised in writing. Those who might benefit most often have literacy deficiencies and thus never learn of the help that is available.

A century and a half ago, people in this country were so backward, ill-educated and poorly housed, that when the potato crop failed, there was massive famine and even worse killer diseases.

We have come a long way since then, but not much in regard to the problems of Travellers. Our record is not so much dismal as non-existent.

This issue could be greatly alleviated within a comparatively short period, if the Government were determined to act effectively.

The problem should be tackled by seeking out and attracting Travellers to training programmes designed to cater for them, taking cognisance of the lack of literacy and numeracy skills that many otherwise intelligent individuals may have as a result being deprived of a basic education.

A minister of state could be designated to deal exclusively with the problem for a period to ensure that funds were properly allocated and used. In particular, new public sector jobs should be designated in the areas of health, education and training for Travellers, who should fill those jobs upon completion of State-sponsored training courses in those fields.

This would be the best means of helping them to help themselves.