Professor Amanda Haynes:

Interestingly, there are really good examples of the collection of equality data in a region that is no longer part of the EU – in England and Wales. This was driven by the likes of the Lammy report, which used once-off, in-depth research, like the kind we have done through the Irish Travellers’ Access to Justice project, to identify that there was a significant problem that needed to be monitored. That report was followed up with a review. It is a matter of consistently collecting data. The one area where England and Wales fall down regarding their equality data concerns Travellers and Roma; however, there is a model for how this data can be collected, processed and published, and for how the trends and patterns it refers to can be attended to, highlighted by and addressed by the state through successive monitoring reports over time.

For me, one of the standout moments concerning access to justice for people impacted by racialisation and bias within the criminal justice system recently has been the statement by the commissioner of the Police Service of Scotland that institutional racism is a feature of that service. That is the starting point. We cannot start to address a problem while we deny it exists. We have to start by acknowledging that racism, specifically anti-Traveller racism, is endemic and embedded in Irish society. We know this from repeated public attitude surveys and surveys of employers. Fifty-seven percent of employers would not employ a Traveller full stop, just because the candidate is a Traveller. We know this from the education system. We know the problem is embedded in all institutions of our society. Why would the criminal justice system be exceptional? If we do not start from the point of recognition and acknowledgement, we cannot move forward.