‘Desperately sad’ - Longford Travellers facing ‘substandard life’ amid lack of services

Travellers in County Longford are facing a “substandard life” due to a lack of services, an Oireachtas meeting has heard.

Longford-Westmeath Sinn Féin TD Sorca Clarke spoke on the issue during a recent meeting of the Joint Committee on Key Issues affecting the Traveller Community.

The group was meeting to discuss the National Traveller Health Action Plan and Report on the Traveller and Roma Mental Health Working Group.

Deputy Clarke is not a member of the committee, but expressed her delight at getting the opportunity to speak.

However, she said she was left with more questions than answers having heard some of the other contributions.

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Deputy Clarke said: “I come from a constituency that has one of the highest percentages of members of the Traveller community per capita.

“I am trying to work out how I am going to take what I am hearing back to my Traveller constituents.

“I am hearing about plans and I am hearing about implementation. There is a lot of busyness going on somewhere.

“I know in my bones that my constituents are going to tell me they do not see it and they do not feel it.”

She continued by highlighting the need for additional services to be made available for members of the Traveller community.

“What needs to happen? This is a big question, but we need to get to the point where there is a plan, there is a budget, there is an implementation and there is the delivery of services.

“Particularly when it comes to mental health, because the longer that process takes, the more Traveller people we are losing. We are losing them to suicide.

“We are losing them to a substandard life and they are not being the best person they can be. I think that is hugely regrettable and desperately sad.”

She asked those present at the meeting how they hope to address the challenges faced by the Traveller community.

In response to Deputy Clarke, Martina Queally of the HSE said: “The National Traveller Health Group oversees the implementation of the plan and the mid-term report will show where we are with those actions being delivered.

“On the mental health side, we track and monitor things like waiting times, access to child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS, and access to adult services.”

Ms Queally’s colleague, Tony McCusker, outlined some of the work the HSE is doing to address mental health problems in the Traveller community.

Mr McCusker said: “Through the group that I chair, which includes representatives from the regions, from the Department and from the Traveller organisations, we try to see what we can support nationally going forward and what themes we can look at.

“For example, this year we are going to try to focus on Traveller men's health. In the past couple of years, we tried to focus on Traveller youth mental health.

“We will link in through the Traveller health units that Ms Queally was talking about before and through the organisations and national organisations such as Pavee Point and Exchange House to see what the wishes and wants of the communities are. We will try to enable those.”

He concluded by saying that the HSE will continue to work with community groups to better address the needs of the Traveller community.