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LAST UPDATE | 17 Oct 2018
PRESIDENT MICHAEL D Higgins has described the comments from his election rival Peter Casey about Travellers as “appalling”, while candidate Gavin Duffy has said his comments are “reckless and inflammatory”.
Sean Gallagher told TheJournal.ie’s The Candidate podcast today that he “abhorred” Casey’s comments.
Senator Joan Freeman, meanwhile, said Casey’s statements show he is “out of touch with Ireland” while Sinn Féin’s Liadh Ní Riada accused Casey of “lazy, racist stereotyping”.
Casey had said to the Irish Independent’s Floating Voter podcast that Travellers should not be recognised as an ethnic minority because they are “basically people camping in someone else’s land”, and that Travellers are “not paying their fair share of taxes in society”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Higgins said it had been a “very important step” to recognise Traveller ethnicity and that community experiences “so many inequalities” compared to the general population.
He said: “The average lifespan is 10 years less than average. I have spoken to young male Travellers whose suicide rate is six times that of the average population.
Recognising the ethnic status of Travellers was a wonderful opportunity to begin looking at all of the issues of inclusion… all of this important.
Sean Gallagher told The Candidate podcast that there’s a “piece of misunderstanding” in regards to the Travelling community and that Casey had “fallen into” viewing that ethnic group in a negative light.
“It’s about raising consciousness,” he said. “Once you know something, you can’t unknow it. I will never view the Travelling like you would have traditionally, because I now know the challenges they face. I know the work their own leaders do… it’s great to see so many Travellers come through education… it’s not about taking isolated cases to make a sensational point.”
In a statement this morning, Duffy also criticised Casey’s comments, said he was “deeply concerned”, and asked him to withdraw them.
“I think his comments are reckless and inflammatory and have no place in a campaign for election of First Citizen,” he said. “They reach back into another era which I believed we, as a society and a community, have put well behind us.”
Freeman said that she had met various members and representatives of the Traveller community as part of her work.
She said: “Comments like these from Peter Casey are hugely disrespectful, hurtful and frankly show how out of touch he is with this country.”
Ní Riada said in a statement that Travellers have been used as a “handy scapegoat” when discussing social problems and that for anyone seeking public office to make these comments were “unacceptable”.
‘A new low for high office’
Martin Collins of Pavee Point, which represents the Traveller community, called on Casey to step down from the presidential race.
“His comments are not befitting of any person who is a candidate in the election for president of office,” Collins said.
“You’re meant to be a president for all the people, you are meant to be inclusive.”
Collins added:
“This is a desperate measure coming from a desperate man who is doing really really poorly in the polls.
He is ill-informed, ill-advised, his comments are reckless.
The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) has called for Casey to make an apology for the comments he made, saying they have demonstrated “a new low for high office”.
“These comments were either founded on ignorance at best or in an attempt to harness anti Traveller support for election purposes.
“Travellers have often been scapegoated to canvass electoral support in the run-up to both local and general elections.
“These views are not of an Ireland of today which has embraced equality and diversity and where we have seen fundamental changes including Traveller ethnicity recognition,” ITM Director Bernard Joyce said.
When contenders for high office can casually, callously and openly perpetuate negative mistruths about a community and conflate that with Traveller’s ethnic status, it denigrates both the community and State party’s role in formal recognition- a position which would surely be at odds with a Presidential hopeful.
TheJournal.ie has asked Casey’s campaign if he had any comment to make in response to calls for him to exit the campaign.
A spokesperson sent this response:
Peter is not available for comment today and we won’t be issuing a statement.
Last year, then-Taoiseach Enda Kenny took the “historic” step of recognising Traveller ethnicity in the Dáil. Kenny described it as a “proud day for Ireland”.
With reporting from Adam Daly
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Obviously prison officers should be afforded all the possible protection available including prosecution. The article really lacks any reasons for why these prosecutions are not taking place. Is it a problem in the process? The Gardai? The DPP? The courts? If the problem is identified then it should be straightforward to rectify
@Nick Allen: The reason is the simple lack of willingness to have a “root and branch” reform of the entire judicial system here. From Judges down to the Parole Board and everything in between needs overhauling and bringing into the 21st century. Judges have far to much discretion regards sentencing, the need for Solicitors and Barristers where one “Lawyer” (like the US system would suffice), a dedicated prosecution service and public defenders offices where both would receive a fixed salary instead of the scam of free legal aid. A Police and Prison Service independent of political interference properly funded and staffed to do the jobs that Society require them to do. Everyone can see the need for change but those in power refuse to change it.
The reason you can’t get a conviction or any type of justice for the crimes against you is the Irish prison service and it’s management do not want or afford you any assistance with making or reporting a crime . It’s a case of they do not want incidents made public or reported, as to do so , would shine alight on a failing system ,that is in crisis . The system is well below what staffing levels it needs ,recruitment is taking place at a snails pace and the reason is simple,MONEY and an IPS policy of ,let’s make it a better place for prisoners. The Irish prisons are turning into welfare lead ,hug a thug holiday camps and the terms Imprisonment / justice for crimes / do the crime serve the time ,are all gone and have been replaced with words such a as residents, occupants and patients .
@joe o hare: I would love to know where you are getting your information from. Is it the Big Book of Fairy Tales? Firstly no Officer would ever “Cry Wolf” as you put it about being assaulted by an inmate because to so so would leave them exposed to a counter charge by the inmate. Secondly with the number of CCTV cameras in each Prison any false accusation would be quickly exposed. Now as for 6 months off on full pay. Firstly an Officers injuries would need to be so severe that the Civil Service Chief Medical Officer would have to make a declaration that the Officer was unfit for duty due to the nature of the injuries received which in itself is extremely rare. An investigation has to take place for an Officer to have an injury declared as an Injury on Duty. So get your facts right.
What use would an additional concurrent sentence serve given that that is the usual outcome in this time of multiple previous convictions, crimes committed out on bail etc. Are there any internal sanctions within the prison system itself?
@Ian Moloney: prisoners who assault staff are placed in the separation and care unit for an amount of time decided by the duty governor. They might lose their TV
Loss of canteen and reduced visits. I’ve seen a lot of assaults on staff both male and female staff and prisoners couldn’t care less about being sent to Septation unit.
With the frequency and frivolous nature of the way our judges gave out suspended sentences the criminals would end up with time off their current sentences if this went to court
This is crazy. An assault on the street would warrant a conviction yet somone doing their job and who gets assaulted gets no justice ??? If staffing levels are reduced then it will not only affect prison officers it will affect all of us too as there will be more and more suspended sentences when prisons cannot cope with the prisoners they already have and are unable to take in more. This is not just a personal safety issue for prisoner officers ( which is serious enough on its own) it’s a public safety issue !!!
@ivan enoughofit poor Joe o hare really hasn’t a bulls notion what he’s talking about but thinks because he used to watch prisoner cell block H years ago it makes him an expert!
@joe o hare: you are talking rubbish .Now let the grown ups have the conversation and you head on out and talk to your imaginary friends,who seem to be informing you incorrectly of happenings in the big bad World
The biggest problem with prisons is the easy availability of drugs, do the prison officers supply them or just get a percentage from the inmates who do.
@joe o hare: you are an ape
@Ivan Enoughofit: No he is just trolling. It’s the likes of him that hate any form of law enforcement. He has been caught out telling lies already which make anything else he has to say worthless.
And here is his much their extra holidays cost the taxpayer.http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/prison-staffs-41000-sick-days-cost-taxpayer-75m-266737.html
@joe o hare: go away Joe .2014 article .
@joe o hare: Now I am going to explain in simple terms especially for you how the above number was calculated. Each Prison Officer works a 12 hour shift. Now because Prison staff work on Bi-weekly basis it means that to average out a 44 hour week they work 4 days one week and 3 the alternative week (excluding compulsory overtime shifts). Now let’s say an Officer is off sick on the week that they are rostered on for 3 days. All 7 days of that week are still counted as Sick Days even though they were only going to work 3 of them. And each Officer only can avail of 12 weeks paid Sick Leave in every 4 year period (3 weeks a year.) Now remember what I said about 7 days counted. In reality it breaks down 1.5 weeks a year if you only count rostered days. So in reality the figure is 1 week a year
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