This article is from page 4 of the 2006-12-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
BISHOP Willie Walsh has urged Travellers to become involved in social issues directly affecting their own lives.
Speaking in Ennis on Friday, Dr Walsh said that often in the past he would have found himself doing something for Travellers or to the Travellers when he was not fully aware of their needs.
Dr Walsh was launching a new Traveller newsletter as part of the implementation of a three year strategy for co-ordination of public services to the Travelling community in Clare as part of National Traveller Focus Week.
The strategy aims to strengthen the culture and self-governance of Travellers in Clare, while enhancing their quality of life and identifying gaps in the current provision of public services.
After hearing of the various initiatives being undertaken within the Traveller community, Dr Walsh said the meeting was a revelation and there are so many positive things going on.
“Very often in life, we seem to focus on the problems and see that such a problem isn’t soluble and we forget about all the things that are being done.”
Dr Walsh urged people from both the Traveller and settled communities to speak to each other more in order to break down the prejudices that exist in each community.
“One of the constant difficulties between the Traveller and settled communities is very often lack of awareness or lack of knowledge of each other, that we don’t communicate together or simply talk to each other or get to know each other better”.
On the high unemployment rates and lower life expectancy in the traveller community, Dr Walsh said: “There is no doubt, there is a long way to go, but up until now, we thought very little about anything except accommodation.
“In fairness to Clare County Council and I would have been critical, they have made extraordinary progress in recent years, having made that progress with accommodation and now the new challenge is to move onto the employment and healthcare challenges.”
He said the Traveller strategy was a very welcome and important initiative. Very often public services were not well co-ordinated and one group didn’t know what another was doing. This led to a duplication of services and caused unnecessary confusion and waste.