Status Act has nothing to do with Nally case
However, we remain concerned about some of the rhetoric used over the course of this week, particularly that which, coming from senior public figures, seemed designed to capitalise on the tragic Nally case in a disturbing and unhelpful way.
During a recent RTÉ ‘Liveline’ programme, Jim Higgins, the Fine Gael MEP, declared the march would be “a wake-up call to Travellers”.
Perhaps with his own electoral agenda in mind, he then went on to launch a gratuitous attack on the Equal Status Act, which had absolutely nothing to do with the court case in question.
He suggested that the act gives ‘unparalleled rights’ which are being ‘abused’ in some unspecified way - yet what are these rights only the exact same rights granted to all others in this country?
The Equal Status Act confers no special privileges, it merely ensures that everyone is treated the same - a principle of which Ireland should be proud. Travellers are entitled to the same treatment under the law as anybody else - equally subject to prosecution and equally entitled to protection. By suggesting that pressure be put on them to ‘self-regulate’, Jim Higgins seems to reinforce false and dangerous notions that Travellers are a homogenous group somehow apart from normal regulations.
Does this MEP believe the legal system and equal status legislation should apply on an opt-in and opt-out discretionary basis? Certainly he seems to regard the political protocol against the playing of the ‘race’ card as disposable.
Alice-Mary Higgins
Comhlamh
10 Upper Camden Street
Dublin 2
