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	Ethnic status could create &lsquo;mutual respect&rsquo; between Travellers and settled communities</p>
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	An Oireachtas committee will today recommend that Travellers be recognised as an ethnic minority.</p>
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	The Joint Committee on Justice and Equality, in a report, will say it is &ldquo;no longer tenable for this State to deny Traveller ethnicity&rdquo; and that it is &ldquo;long past time for this State to honour our responsibilities to the international conventions on human rights&rdquo;.</p>
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	It will call on Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to make a statement in the D&aacute;il announcing the State&rsquo;s recognition of Traveller ethnic minority status and says the Government should then contact relevant international bodies confirming this recognition.</p>
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	The recommendation comes after a long campaign by Travellers for such recognition, support by human rights organisations, including the United Nations and the Irish Human Rights Commission.</p>
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	The justice committee held a series of hearings on the issue last year and produced the &ldquo;Report on the Recognition of Traveller Ethnicity&rdquo;, written by its rapporteur on the issue, Padr&aacute;ig Mac Lochlainn TD.</p>
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	Mr Mac Lochlainn, from Donegal, is the first member of the D&aacute;il to come from a Traveller background and last year introduced legislation in private members&rsquo; time, which, if passed, would have recognised Traveller ethnicity.</p>
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	His report will call on the Government, once the first recommendations have been implemented, to build on them by engaging with Traveller groups about how to progress them.</p>
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	Mr Shatter, in a response to a parliamentary question on the issue earlier this year, said: &ldquo;I have no immediate plans to introduce such legislation though, as I have indicated in the past, serious consideration is being given to this issue.&rdquo;</p>
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	In 2011, he also told the United Nations he was &ldquo;seriously considering&rdquo; conferring ethnic minority status on Travellers.</p>
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	All the main Traveller groups argue Travellers constitute an ethnic minority, given their shared history and culture, their preference for nomadism and their language, albeit now little used.</p>
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	Recognition of their ethnicity, they say, would confer a sense of pride and value among Travellers, when the overwhelming message they get from wider society is one of disrespect and even hostility.</p>
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	Proponents have also argued it would give Travellers a sense of responsibility to live up to the status and so, over generations, a mutual respect between the Traveller and the settled communities could be achieved.</p>
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	Ethnicity would also strengthen the argument to provide Travellers with culturally appropriate housing, healthcare and positive support in accessing education and employment.</p>
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	<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/oireachtas-committee-to-call-for-traveller-ethnicity-to-be-recognised-1.1764422">http://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/oireachtas-committee-to-call-for-traveller-ethnicity-to-be-recognised-1.1764422</a></p>
