National Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy 2017 – 2021.

Among the key initiatives and developments arising from the development of this Inclusion Strategy are the following: 1. State recognition of Travellers as an ethnic group of the Irish nation; 2. investment by the State in community-based support mechanisms to ensure greater retention of Traveller and Roma children and youths in the education system; 3. increased funding to be invested by the State to promote knowledge of, and pride in, Traveller culture and heritage; 4. in consultation with Traveller representatives, a culturally appropriate initiative will be designed to address feuding in the community; 5. a new system of ethnic identifiers will be developed across the public sector to help to track progress and/or challenges for the Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland; and 6. reinvigorated efforts by the State to ensure that Travellers and Roma interact fully with the public health sector in order to address some of the underlying health-related challenges facing those communities. Actions to address the issue of drug and/or alcohol misuse as experienced among the Traveller and Roma communities are also being considered in the context of the Government’s forthcoming National Drugs Strategy and through the measures identified under the Report of the Substance Misuse Steering Group