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ROMA CHILDREN ARE being put at risk because of the State’s systemic failures to protect them, according to advocacy group Pavee Point.
Serious concerns about the welfare and rights of the Roma community’s children were raised at a conference attended by Minister Frances Fitzgerald yesterday.
“It is a daily struggle to put your child through school with no child benefit, no medical card and no support,” said Gabi Muntean from the Roma Project.
“Our children are missing out on the opportunity to be who they can be – to reach their full potential. Ireland is our home now and the state needs to include us.”
Another speaker, Iulius Rostas from Budapest said it is time for the State “to stop being complicit in discrimination and stand up for Roma children”.
The conference heard that the serious child welfare issues faced by Roma children include child poverty and a lack of access to medical care.
Poverty was identified as the key factor stopping children participating in school.
A new report has also said that last year’s removal of two children from their families in Tallaght and Athlone has exacerbated the situation, reports RTÉ News.
According to the publication, more Roma mothers are failing to turn up to public health nurse appointments out of fear and distrust of authorities. As a result, children are missing out on vaccinations.
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Why is it always the States problem or fault ? Take some responsibility if you want to give your child the best possible chance in life and work your arse off to ensure you can give it to them. Thats across the board no matter who you are or where you come from .
I think …..from previous statements from Pavee point….that the default position is that the fault always lies with (A) the State (B) the Public. Its never a case of saying…..hey, why aren’t your children in school. Simple facts… Traveller and Roma children suffer the same disadvantages i.e. being born to parents that dont prioritise education. Does Pavee Point castigate its demographic group for their failings…..no. This organisation is a waste of tax payers money, the 2 million spent each year would be better used sending doctors into halting sites to ensure kids are happy and healthy….. Remember there is no such thing as a bad child… get them early and they have the same chance as any settled child.
And people should have only as many children as they can manage.
It’s not for the taxpayer to pay people to have more children than they can afford.
Darren….They are thinking of giving their many children the best possible chance. Ireland is one if not the best and most easy to scam social welfare benefits from. Its not their fault….. its ours for allowing this to happen. This along with allowing them begging and trying to intimidate people into buying flowers from them……all our fault.
oh and another thing……… We settled people are paying the cost of running pavee point too….in our taxes……yeah……its all our fault
Calling for the removal of children being used in begging schemes to be removed from the parents is one of the most urgent actions to protect Roma Children.
Ireland’s welfare system is seriously in need of an overhaul . People waiting 3 months to get paid after taking a part time job in the hopes of full time employment is making them afraid to try. We need to encourage people to find work not make them think they may starve if this job doesn’t work out
“It is a daily struggle to put your child through school with no child benefit, no medical card and no support,” said Gabi Muntean from the Roma Project
Indeed it is a struggle… I know myself, I see it every day. In fact I know many of my friends and associates have even had the misfortune of having to resort to taking up employment to do so.
Say it ain’t so drew. They actually work in order to educate and feed their children?? Well I never
It’s interesting that representatives of the Lativan, Lithuanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Kosovo communities or indeed any immigrant group do not or at least we’re not aware of it experience the same issues… or do they? If they do i haven’t been made aware of it and would like to know.
That’s because the other groups are perceived to be ‘white’ and consequently enjoy the unfair benefits of white privilege.
That very well maybe i would genuninely like to see the facts on it – what about the people who come from the Philippines, Brazil, India etc who are predominantly non-white – do they they experience the same discrimination?
It sounds very much like you’re accusing the Irish government of being racist, mercurial, or did I take your comment up wrong??
Just an observation from a purely personal perspective, but I’ve never met a member of the Roma community who works for a living.
I’m not sure anybody has mike but if they have, maybe they could share with us.
I think a heartwarming photo on the Journal the other day of a female member of the chinese community walking out as a new member of An Gárda Siochána.
FYI – a “female member of the chinese community” may well be Irish born and raised so I think your comment may be either late or invalid; think entertainers and Samantha Mumba.
Mercurial, you’re talking bullshit. Roma have a reputation for crime, begging and dishonesty. If they want to improve their lives they need to work to change tgus perception.
But surely Mercurial travellers fall into the category of white or then again …..
Pavee point are failing to point out the racism and crime against citizens of this country committed by Members of the Roma community.
Hold on a minute… there are lots of things being said in the comments section that i can deal with.. but dont you dare accuse samantha mumba of being entertaining!!
Samantha Mumba was born in Zambia.
Try saying that 10 times really fast james.
Zambia terrace between Philipsburgh avenue and the Richmond road.
Equality for Roma and Travellers? Sure they are equal…..
@Sean i digress of course – what i meant was an Irish citizen of chinese descent – i do not mean to cause offence in this regard… or cast aspersions as to the ladies nationality.
So you want the Roma to assimilate and be slaves to the system like us?
The Roma actually have a role on Mother Earth which they know about and it pays no money because it is not considered “work”.
The HSE are not just trying to assimilate Roma children but all other non nationals.
Inigo Montoya AFAIK …She would have to be an Irish Citizen to become a Garda Member. I have come across quite a few Asians with strong Dublin accents. At least the Asian community are active and don’t hang about.
The only Roma in our area run a very successful car-washing and valeting business. Excellent, hard workers.
Tatjana Kytmannow The Roma had a similar car windscreen washing business out our way but were soon chased off by the Gardai.
You don’t have to be a citizen to be a guard.
It’s not a ‘windscreen washing business’ but a totally legal car wash and full valeting service. All hand washed, excellent work. Which just shows that most are very well willing to integrate, given any chance. That will get me more red thumbs because it disturbs the prejudices of some on here. Btw, I am neither Roma, Russian, Polish etc myself
That doesn’t show that most are willing to assimilate; it shows that those working there are willing to do so.
Yes you do sandbag
Tatjana, I think I may know the car valeting business you refer to. I think you will find that they are indeed Romanian, but certainly not Roma.
Mercurial sad little troll playing the race card
That’s an offensive comment
Begging is working !
You don’t, you just have to be a legal resident or resident EU citizen; it was changed a few years ago.
http://www.publicjobs.ie/publicjobs/campaignAdvert/105/booklet.htm
The criteria are the same for full-time gardaí.
I lol’d at that.
People wouldn’t employ anyone from the Roma community….
Would love to know how they got that place up and running, seen as they have NO money, pfffttttt
I often wonder what might happen if a large bunch of irish families with young children headed off for Romania and started making demands of the Romanian government. I presume we would be treated with the courtesy and respect that the Roma community expect from the Irish government? I’m also sure the Romanians have a pavee point equivelant, I’d love to hear about it.
I notice how the resident racists that infest this website always engage in whataboutery at the drop of a hat.
They simply refuse to deal with all that prejudice and hatred within themselves, eating them away.
And now you’re accusing me of being racist aswell. When all else fails, play the racism card eh? Typical and not unsurprising
But what about what cause this thinking ? All people know of Roma groups is street begging with children and animals. Now I’m Sure there are decent people stuck in in those groups, probably the majority , but don’t complain that you’re not getting enough money or medical cards. Nobody is getting much these days for anything!
You are aware that Roma are not exclusively Romanian? They are an ethnic group that most likely originated in Rajasthan India and travelled to Europe and continue to travel throughout Europe to this day.
Romanian families who reside here are for the most part hard working;many Romanian doctors come here for training contribute to the exchequer before going home as consultants.
Yes wanaka, in fact I know quite a few Romanian nationals who have been living and working in Ireland for quite some time. The comments are about members of the Roma community though none of which I have ever heard of having a job
Well then why single Romania out in your first comment?
Ok maybe I should have included Bulgaria, Moldova etc etc but I was working on a tight timeline and just didn’t bother including all the other Roma possibilities but now ya dragged it out of me dude :)
Jornal.ie Great journalists worthy of newstatesman, The Oserver. Commenters better off going to mail online with their hate speeches.
Come to Sligo. All able-bodied and adult members of a large Roma family (?) run a successful car wash here. Best service in town. Totally legit, tax paying and the kids are in school. In the afternoon the young women leave to go home to look after them. You are so full of prejudice that you probably would not realise they are Roma because they don’t fit your idea of them.
So you’re saying they made something of themselves and integrated into their community well and don’t live on handouts? That’s what we are all saying should be done as opposed to free medical cards and free money.
@Montys…They are not Romanian. They are Roma…..big differance. I work with several hard working Romanian nationals who find it very embarrassing to be linked to the Roma. They say the Roma are a huge problem at home and are very surprised at the fact that they are treated so well here. They have said that will change when we get to know who we are dealing with. Not only are they known for milking the system but in Romania they have a proven reputation for crimes such as stealing also and that’s fact not fiction. So when a person says they are Romanian we should not think they are Roma.
Extraordinary! They raise their own children in a disgusting fashion, using them as (allegedly drugged) human trocaire boxes to shove in the face of every passer by, keep them out of school and groom them to continue the cycle once they’re old enough to spawn little trocaire boxes of their own – and it’s our fault (the State is effectively the Irish man and woman)??!!!
I know not all Roma engage in this lifestyle, but if they want to be treated as equals in society, they should integrate into it and act within the laws of the land. Perhaps having a word with their fellow Roma who do engage in the above behaviour would be a good starting point on their road to equality.
Same applies to Pavee Point; instead of searching under every rock and pebble for the latest perceived hint of racism, how about getting your community in order and stop committing a disproportionate amount of anti-social crimes? Perhaps then ‘the State’ will take you seriously and listen to your grievances, real or imagined.
The surest way to encourage discrimination is to differentiate yourself from the rest of society and the Roma and Travelers here are always at great pains to remind us of their different heritage and culture to the rest of society. Fair enough, but if part of that ‘culture’ involves breaking laws and interfering with the rest of society then you can’t cry ‘discrimination’ when ‘the State’ enforces those laws.
Pavee point = Always Someone Else’s Fault!
This Pavee Point shower are a gas bunch, not a peak out of them until some incident raises its ugly head. The Nevin incident seems to be the latest catalyst for the latest “Hard done by story”. Aside from the plight of any child in a poverty stricken situation, which I might add the government should be duty bound to take responsibility for, no matter what ethnic background, this misguided representative body seems to think the world should revolve around roma and travellers needs alone and yet, not on a single occasion do they address the disgraceful behaviour of Travellers in particular and more recently the parents of Roma children who seem to think its acceptable to put their children on every street, bridge or back alley in the country to Beg.
Their hilarious defence of the recent Nevin family debacle is surreal when the dogs on the street know what happened, indeed hundreds of witnesses at a a recent sports award event at a Hotel in Mullingar saw first hand where the dispute commenced, indeed some unfortunate guests of the Hotel had serious damage done to their vehicles and Mr Nevin was no angle. The dispute then spilled out to his home where their “Cultural Entitlement to kick the living shite out of each other continued. What is regrettable is the fact the having made so good, Mr Nevin threw it all away, this family just can’t help themselves. There was however some amusement around Mullingar with the sight of Nevins sponsored BMW driving through town with lumps taken out of it, me thinks sponsors won’t be amused.
What the state is paying for is the enormous Garda Presence in Mullingar over the past few days and with a Nevin family funeral in the coming days, god only knows whats coming next, at least these and other thugs from the travelling community will have their favourite Haunt “the local graveyard” to have it out, is Pavee Point forgetting the appalling violence at last years Cementry Sunday where gangs arrived in Vans with assorted weapons to have yet another cultural event, Innocent people including elderly and children got caught up in this disgraceful display.
Pavee Point need to go and F$%K off and find an appropriate Hole to crawl into.
Succinctly put Joseph.I encourage anyone who wishes to know what real ‘traveller culture ‘ is all about to type ‘traveller callouts’into a youtube search.You will certainly find it enlightening.
International Traveller and Roma day? I’ve heard it all, lets have an International shoplifting day
Romania and Bulgaria should never have been let into the EU.Virtual third world mafia states with a Roma underclass living in extreme poverty that is millions strong.
As we can tell from the words of ‘Roma Project’sGabi Muntee,the Roma expect free health care and access to full welfare benefits when they relocate here.
Take a leave out of the French governments book and send them back whence they came from, if found to be begging on the streets,engaging in criminality or erecting illegal dwellings.
It won’t happen though our local P.C. mob has too much power.
The French have little success with moving them on because they get back in very quickly through open borders.
But they certainly are more aggressive of their treatment of them with zero tolerance and the Gendarme are all over them if they suspect even a minor incident; maybe that’s what we need here.
Wanaka, the big difference here is we don’t have a ‘border’ so to speak, we have a large expanse of water separating us from mainland Europe so in theory it should be much harder for people to get into the country.
I agree but obviously we are doing something wrong in this country that people who don’t contribute in anyway to society have better entitlement than some who are working.
They are entitled to full benefits and free health care in Romania and Bulgaria as well, shamen. Just the money is better here. And how dare you call my country a third world mafia state? So when a few roma come here and milk the system you scream blue murder, but when we’ve had them and fed them for centuries it is our problem and we should be kept out of the EU so that your nice first world country doesn’t get “contaminated”? Did you ever ask yourself how is it that all the roma are in Eastern Europe?
they are mostly at risk from their own parents. Why prop up abusive families with taxpayer monies?
Two well fed looking men, can’t be that bad living here with free accommodation, money and education for their children (if they would bother their arse sending them to school) great country we live in!
The problem with this county is…
1. Do Gooders
2. PC Brigade
3. The bleeding heart club
I believe liquidation of these organisations will have major benefits for this country.
@petr tarasov whys is it shameful for ppl to have opinions?? should we close our eyes to everything/
Check your white dog privilege!
Set a beggar on horseback, and he’ll ride to the devil.
The State has failed to protect my vulnerable wallet from Roma children.
In an item I read recently about Immigrants in New York years back
““The poorest Hebrew knows – the poorer he is, the better he knows it – that knowledge is power, and power as the means of getting on in the world that has spurned him so long, is what his soul yearns for. He lets no opportunity slip to obtain it. Day- and night-schools are crowded with his children, who learn rapidly and with ease. Every synagogue, every second rear tenement or dark back-yard, has its school and its school master, with his scourge to intercept those who might otherwise escape.” According to Magnet, the successes of present day Asian immigrants “contains an implicit reproach” to the indigenous poor. Many arrive with little capital and a poor command of the language, but through hard work become successful.
More realistic headline:
State is failing to protect vulnerable public from Roma children.
This state’s treatment of the Roma community has been nothing short of despicable to date.
Add to that, their eugenics based code of conduct, which causes them to take children from their families if they’re sufficiently ‘aryan’ looking – what’s next enforced sterilization for those of ‘non acceptable racial stock’??
Is that you iulius?
Hitler and SS mentality is alive and well in Eire.
Are we all forgetting how we as Irish were in similar position under British/Roman rule.?
Remember all those pictures of our hovels and poverty?
Remember the work houses- identical to SS camps.
So the abused have become the abusers?
Perhaps do like they did in London, collect up all the beggars and homeless and dump them in Wales.
We could dump them in Mayo with Enda?
You’re full of waffle Catherine
Catherine, you’re deluded – roman rule! Lol
Danny DeVito lookalike right there.
I see the white cloaks and pointy hats are out today. Quelle surprise. Shameful.
Wizards??
I suspect many posting here are from the ‘broad waist, narrow mind’ set.
Not every racist is a member of the KKK petr, you shouldn’t be so quick to judge people.
I was speaking figuratively, Pierce, you absolute idiot.
Ah bless
Peter Tosserov, good to see you’ve not changed your spots
Irony that is “travellers” and never leaving this country?
Barry@ how would you know? When’s the last time you spoke to one of us and asked about our Holliday plans . Oh that’s right never so stop with the fake irony and jog on
Assumptions Tom. I have dealt with all types who would be considered travellers. Why is the blatant criminality that is seen occur (youtube etc) and also read about not condemned by these interest groups (Pavee etc)
You cannot have it both ways. Either become part of modern society or don’t. But you must behave by societal rules and norms if you want the same rights as those that do. So denounce those that break the law and commit crime for what they are and separate yourself from them.
Name two of them that would tell you anything about there holiday plans . And stop with the crime crap there’s as much crime committed by the settled community in Dublin in a week as by travelers in a year .never mind the banks with their over the top wages
I’m a moderator on another Irish political website and tbh I’d have removed many of these below the belt comments if they had been posted there.
When in rome
I wonder what people’s employers would think if they knew they were posting hate speech on the Internet while at work. Hmmm.
Is this what you want for Ireland ?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1038747/The-world-shocked-Italian-sunbathers-ignoring-dead-gipsy-girls–But-Italy-showing-chilling-Roma-children.html
So in other words, you’re issuing veiled threats to report those people you don’t agree with to their employers.
Am I not allowed to wonder? :0
Do what you like, but it says a lot about your attitude to debate if you have to resort to such tactics. I doubt you’d get very far anyway since the bulk of the comments aren’t an incitement to hatred.
The revolutionist has no time or patience for petty bourgeois spivs who want to spend their whole lives ‘debating’ and ‘discussing’.
Tosserov rerurns
Ooooh, listen to the scary revolutionist! We are awed at your iron-willed commitment; ably shown by spouting waffle on the internet. You obviously have time to go reporting people to their bosses for not agreeing with you. Trotsky would be so proud.
Peter you spend your life mouthing off here you bourgeoise hypocrite. And now you’re going to tell on everyone? Ooh, take that Capitalism
Very big feet for an 11 and 12 year old?
Sandbag don’t write something you’d be ashamed to let the world know about if you or anyones convictions are so strong why would they want to hide them from there boss
I’ve written nothing I’m ashamed of, but unless someone is posting something illegal then it’s none of an employer’s business what someone thinks. People are still entitled to their opinions & deserve to be able to express them without being bullied into keeping schtum.
lol Yeah you’re so proud of your bigotry that you go under a fake name. *slow hand clap*
http://www.romania-insider.com/ngos-outraged-by-proposed-amendment-to-romanias-constitution-banning-roma-from-calling-themselves-romanians/101635/ Ignorant fasistic laws rising in romania
Who funds Pavee Point?
Do travellers and Roma contribute to them?
whatabouttery again only stating article is in line with opinion of new law proposed by romanian govt. to make sure your ethnic romanian by dna-test.
Frank……like i said before its us settled people who fund pavee point through our taxes. they get government support to run the organization. Of course the roma issue is really just a smoke screen for their true agenda. namely our very own indigenous non settled communities. …..if this kind of abuse of the system keeps going this country will be well and truly Knackered
Realistically they shouldnt get too upset … The government treat the children of Ireland like that too ….
Banks with wages? Ha.. stay on topic Tom.
Travel plans? You trying to troll or genuinely foolish?
Crime – at least people denounce the criminals, but if they live in a caravan or have any shred of minority they are not denounced.
Case and point is the “frog” v farmer case. Countless other events of burglary and theft. Why don’t you ask a few people.
Have you no reply to my other points about wanting to be part of society so thus adhere to the rules and laws?
I’m trying to point out that you know nothing about travellers. Are some travellers involved in crime yes but there’s just as much crime in the settled community. do you denounce every act of crime by a member of the settled community. or like us do you take it for granted that everyone already knows its wrong so there’s no point in pointing out the obvious. All I’ve ever wanted as a traveler is to be judged by my own actions and not that of another group of travellers most of whom I’ve never even met. To randomly say where all the same is the hight of ignorance.
At no point did I say all of one type of people are criminals. Lets get that clear.
I did say that a group that lobbies/represents a minority has to call foul when crimes are committed by members rather than turn it to “racism”. If anything it would be defamatory or discrimination but not racism.
Its a flawed argument to say well others do it so sure you cant give out about us regarding crime.
Until a group that fights for rights and equal treatment denounces the violent and criminal subset of that group and does it CLEARLY and publicly they will not have public opinion on their side.
You cannot have the best of both worlds – choose one and suffer the consequences of that choice whichever it may be.
Real
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