Traveller Community
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown

I thank the Minister of State. The Minister of State mentioned the governance issues that have arisen. This organisation has operated for 40 years and the governance and running of the organisation was done very well during that time. I have worked with many of these groups and it is against all odds sometimes that they survive with very little funding, a lot of volunteer power, and community spirit driving them forward. The has been operating and functioning well as an organisation for many decades. It is crucial to not to lose sight of that while dealing with the current issues that arise. I am seeking assurance that, as the Minister of State mentioned all the funders being conscious of the need to ensure services are delivered to the community, that they remain accessible and that the needs of the Traveller community continue to be prioritised and met.
That means those services must be provided by alternative organisations, by the council and by funding that comes from elsewhere across Government while this issue is being dealt with.
I appreciate this is a complex issue and something that needs input from multiple sources but I want to make sure some of the good work is not lost in regard to things like the lease this organisation has, which I believe may be under threat if we do not get a solution in place fast enough. This is the kind of thing I would urge Government and the Minister to look at to make sure the 40 years of really hard work by the Southside Travellers Action Group is not lost because of the crisis that arisen over the past year or so. For me, the difficulty is that we know how hard it is. This is one of the first groups that was ever set up to provide these services to Travellers in Ireland. The thought that we would lose that infrastructure and continuity is really devastating. One thing I really want to emphasise is that the Minister should really seek to maintain that continuity.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05