Travellers know what it means when politicians make a habit of standing outside our sites, pointing cameras at our homes and speaking as though true criminality is somehow written in our blood. When a Senator invokes Garda patrols in the same breath as warning Travellers, it does not feel like a concern for safety. It feels like a collective punishment and an attempt to mark a whole community as dangerous because of who we are, not because of individual actions. That is an unethical abuse of power. The Garda is supposed to police behaviour, not identity.

Senators are supposed to hold the State to account and be part of making positive laws and policies for all people in this country. Today, I want to make it very clear that using the platform of a Senator to imply that Traveller problems can be solved by extra patrols and public warnings is not courage. If a Member believes Travellers are equal citizens, then they should stop talking about us as a problem or risk within society and start talking with us as partners in shaping the policies that are affecting our lives.

Travellers moved into a wee space and a serving Senator in this House came out and said there are more patrols and that our friends were going to leave very soon. That is really patronising, horrible and disgusting behaviour. If it were Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, it would be all over the media and they would be called out on this. This Senator has years of experience and apparently is all about equality and equality for the Irish people, but obviously not for Irish Travellers. Members cannot use their platform in these Houses to promote hate towards our community. We are more likely to not get jobs, receive bad schooling and have so much ill-treatment towards us as a community. We do not need a public representative who sits in our Houses, where I am as a proud member of the Traveller community, to keep putting us down. Instead of putting us down they should use their platform in these Houses as a positive towards our community. Stop with the cameras and social media. She was not even brave enough to put in on her own social media.

I said this already in relation to Standing Order 52 about the public interest and that balance. I want to remind all Members of that issue.