This week is Traveller Pride Week. Last Thursday, I was privileged to present an award for intersectionality to Ms Annmarie Sweeney. I want to mention that today in advance of Traveller Pride Week.

Traveller pride came about 12 years ago. I remember the Irish Traveller Movement asking me whether I would participate in a video about being a proud Irish Traveller. I would not do it because I was not proud, because society was not proud of us as a community. I have changed a lot in those 12 years when it comes to recognising Travellers as an ethnic minority group. For years and years, we were told that we were never good enough in Irish society and that we did not belong in education and could not grow up to be anything we wanted to be. That was internalised and externalised oppression.

We have come a long way as a community. The theme of Traveller pride is voices less heard within the community around addiction, mental health and LGBTQI+ people within our community. We are not just Travellers; we are Travellers who want to be something in the world. Even yesterday, a Senator with a crowd stopped me and introduced me as the Traveller Senator. I am not just a Traveller Senator; I am an equal Member of this House who raises many issues at the heart of human rights and equality. I just want to say that this morning. Nobody is just anything. We do not define people in this House because of the community they come from, say, from counties Donegal or Monaghan. We do not say, "There is the Monaghan Senator". It is important that we are mindful about that.

I will mention one last thing about the hate crime legislation. I know the Taoiseach, Simon Harris, is committed to introducing the hate crime legislation. Could the Acting Leader find out where that legislation is and whether we could get it passed before the summer recess?

I commend Senator Flynn on what she just said, but I have to disagree with her on one thing. The Monaghan Senator will tell you they are a Monaghan Senator and make sure they bring up the Monaghan issues, such is the local nature of Irish politics, and rightly so.

I bring up issues that affect the Traveller community all the time.

And rightly so.

The Education Act 1998 makes clear in section 9 that schools are required to do two things: to provide "a curriculum as prescribed by the Minister" and to "promote the moral, spiritual, social and personal development of students and provide health education for them, in consultation with ... parents, having regard to the characteristic spirit of the school", or what most of us would probably refer to as the ethos of the school. Not surprisingly, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, is currently conducting a public consultation on redevelopment on the curriculum side, that is, the primary school curriculum. That process runs to 7 June and invites input on five draft curriculum specifications. I encourage parents, in particular, but all concerned citizens to make submissions to the NCCA. What amazes me on the "characteristic spirit" side is that despite the constitutional priority given to parents in the education of their children, little attention is paid by the NCCA to parents' views on the content of their children's education. I am asking for a debate, in fact, on the shaping of our curriculum. The NCCA and the Department consistently ignore the reality that the characteristic spirit of a school should be a guiding light for the implementation of any syllabus. However, there is never any mention of this in consultation documents except occasionally to decry that influence. As I said, the Education Act 1998 makes clear what the rights and responsibilities of schools are. Why does the NCCA continue to ignore this duty on schools? Why does it insist on producing curriculums that seek to bypass the responsibility around characteristic spirit? Why does it kowtow to critical theory and gender theory in producing its draft specifications? I encourage all primary school parents, in particular, to push back against this centralising, controlling, ideological politicisation of the curriculum by the NCCA and the Department and make their submissions determinedly by 7 June.