This article is from page 12 of the 2007-03-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
THE rising tide of the Celtic Tiger has failed to raise all boats and mem- bers of the Travelling community are worse off than they were 30 years ago, according to priest and head of Respond, Pat Cogan, formerly of the Killaloe diocese.
According to Fr Cogan, who was a chaplain to Travellers in Ennis in the 1970s, public hostility towards Trav- ellers has also increased over the last number of decades.
Speaking at the launch of Respond’s new Traveller accommodation and Support policy last week, Fr Cogan
raised concerns about a low take- up of second-level education among male Travellers in Ireland.
‘There has been a great improve- ment in the general wealth in Ireland over the last decade. But this has by- passed the ‘Travelling community to a large extent. One reason is that their family size tends to be growing consistently and this can make it dif- ficult,’ said Ned Brennan, Head of Operations at Respond.
‘The main reason is the educational issue; 1f the educational system does not work for Travelling people then how can they get the skills to sell to employers and take advantage of the
Celtic Tiger?”
Respond has identified suitable Traveller accommodation as one of its main priorities for the future and has appointed a Traveller accommo- dation officer whose sole responsi- bility will be to work with Traveller organisations.
Their new policy, which has been circulated to every local authority in the country including Clare County Council, is focused on a more uni- fied approach to dealing with Travel- ler issues.
“We want to bring about a much more unified approach to Traveller support. What we are offering to lo-
cal authorities is the use of our exper- tise of the last 25 years in how best to organise a coordinated Traveller sup- port,” continued Mr Brennan.
“We would be offering to work hand in hand with the councils and all the other involved agencies. We have cir- culated our policy document around to all local authorities, a number have got back to us and we would be very hopeful that all of them will over the next few weeks.”
Life expectancy for female Travel- lers is currently 12 years less than females from the settled community, while males die on average 10 years Cre Coe