ADE Oluborode BL

Independent Seanad Candidate

Trinity College Constituency

A Voice of Elevation

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Travelling Community

To Members of the Travelling Community

Discrimination is a pervasive issue for Travellers across all areas, including education, health, housing, and political representation.

My legal practice, policies and advocacy work especially in the areas of Education, Health, Housing and political representativeness align with the interests of the Travelling community. As a senator, I will support research work and needs assessment upon which to explore the following:

  1. Education: develop a culture appropriate education system
  2. Health: establishment an funding of health services for the traveller to reduce morbidity and mortalities
  3. Housing: explore the possibility of the establishment and funding of a National Traveller Accommodation Board to include culture-appropriate housing.

Education Policies for the Travelling Communities:

Major challenges are 1) Low participation and retention rates in mainstream education; and 2) Lack of cultural understanding in schools.

Measures: The following measures can help to combat these challenges

  1. Encouragement of Traveller Teachers by establish pathways and incentives for members of the Travelling community to become educators.
  2. Provide cultural competence training for teachers and school staff to address unconscious bias and ensure an inclusive environment.
  3. Fund programs to improve literacy and numeracy among Traveller children and adults. Targeted Support Programs:
  4. Offer scholarships, mentoring programs, and after-school support for Traveller children to reduce educational attainment gaps.

I will support targeted measures to address other areas including Health, Housing and political representation.

 

Funding and Accountability:

  • I will advocate for EU and exchequer funds for these measures and monitor their utilisation to ensure effectiveness.

Community Involvement:

  • The importance of consulting with representatives and organizations supporting the Community cannot be over-emphasised. Solution to combat these issues would be co-create to ensure that they truly reflect the community’s needs and priorities; and to promote their engagement with the measures.