Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I will be extremely brief because Eileen has largely answered the question I was going to ask her. I thank all of the witnesses for their contributions. It is always very enlightening to hear the history of the Travelling people and their suffering at the moment. As public representatives, we want to highlight that a great wrong has been done to Traveller people over the past number of generations, and we want to right that wrong together.

I have a question for Eileen, and she has largely answered it very eloquently. Obviously, 1% of the Traveller community go into third level education, so there is a huge deficit in terms of primary to post-primary and then to third level education. I understand there are economic issues and reasons for that. When I was growing up, the vast majority of people never went into third level education and went to work. They had to because the economic reality was they had to go to work. There are always different reasons people do not go into third level education. Some people want to get a job and so forth. What was Eileen's experience when moving from secondary to third level education? I do not say this in isolation. Did she encounter different attitudes than second level education when she entered third level education?

What was her overall experience? I am sure many people look up to her. Does Ms Flynn say to all Travellers, "This was my experience and you do not have to follow it"? What initiatives would help to increase participation from 1% to 5% in the next few years?