Travellers advised to mobilise politically

ONLY one of the 30 elected representatives on Mayo County Council accepted an invitation to an event in Castlebar where the regional (Connaught-Ulster) results of a national traveller survey was launched.

The sole elected attendee from the local authority was Ballina-based Independent Councillor Gerry Ginty.

Councillor Ginty drew attention to the fact that all of his colleagues had snubbed the invite, stating that he was ‘disappointed but not surprised’.

He maintained the non-attendance highlighted his contention that ‘there are no votes’ to be harvested by public representatives in supporting travellers and added that travellers themselves must organise themselves politically if the important issues of their concerns and demands are to be addressed.

Earlier, the results of a survey carried out by Behaviour & Attitudes Market Research – independently coordinated by Jacinta Brock and Damian Peelo and funded by the Community Foundation for Ireland – were revealed.

The survey showed that 90 per cent of travellers in Connaught/Ulster are affected by suicide compared with 82 per cent nationally.

And two out of 10 travellers in the region are dissatisfied with life compared with three out of 10 nationally.

Forty one per cent of travellers in the region have mental health problems compared with 45 per cent nationally.

Issues with mental health concerns were highest among females and overall higher for people living in private rented accommodation or shared housing.

Twenty six per cent of travellers in the region indicated they believe unemployment to have worsened for the community in the past five to 10 years.

Only 17% of people in a national population survey (commissioned simultaneously) said they would employ a traveller.

Sixty three per cent of the travelling community regionally said they had concerns for their health based on diet and lifestyle.

As regards dietary health, the highest concerns (80 per cent) were amongst those living on unauthorised sites, the survey found.

The new findings show that there is much reduced travel in the community with over half of all travellers who had travelled at one point ceasing to do so more than a decade ago.

According to the compilers of the survey this would indicate the decline in nomadic practices have been influenced by the introduction of criminal trespass legislation in 2002 which stopped travellers being nomadic.

In respect of education, Jacinta Brack said 62% of travellers in the region have completed their Junior and Leaving Certificates compared with 55% cent nationally.