Irish authorities have been urged to improve the situation of Traveller and Roma communities by Council of Europe experts on national minorities.
The Advisory Committee on the Protection of National Minorities has published its latest opinion assessing Ireland's implementation of a treaty that seeks to protect the rights of people belonging to national minorities known as the Framework Convention.
Overall, the view of the Advisory Committee was that Irish society continued to show respect for diversity.
It welcomed the recent adoption of various strategies and action plans - notably the long-awaited National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy 2024-2028.
It also described the National Traveller Health Action Plan as a positive, timely and welcomed policy.
Nevertheless, it said the "generally positive atmosphere in the country" clashed with attitudes of the majority population towards the Traveller and Roma communities, who "still suffer from various forms of discrimination, prejudice and institutional racism".
It said culturally appropriate accommodation for the Traveller community remained a major issue in Ireland, resulting in further poverty, marginalisation and social exclusion.
It advised that the 2023 National Action Plan against Racism be clearly tailored to also cover anti-Traveller and anti-Roma racism.
It also pointed out that racist incidents against Travellers and Roma were significantly under-reported and there was a lack of trust in gardaí.
The experts suggested that over-representation of Travellers in prison for minor offences should be addressed and they highlighted the disproportionate level of unemployment and serious health issues among Travellers including the high rate of suicides and mental health problems.
The view of the committee was that the Traveller economy and Traveller-led social enterprises should be further supported.
It pointed out that Traveller and Roma communities are "significantly over-represented among the homeless population", and that many halting sites for Travellers were situated in environmentally hazardous and unhealthy areas.
On education, it said school dropouts needed to be addressed, it called for more efforts to provide intercultural education and for the Roma genocide to be included in school curricula.
Listen: Members of Traveller community living in substandard accommodation
