Travellers groups today claimed legislation being rushed through the Oireachtas today that could mean jail sentences for Travellers residing on sites without the owners’ permission is both racist and unconstitutional.
The Irish Travellers Movement (ITM), Pavee Point and the National Travellers Women’s Forum today met with the Minister for Justice Mr O'Donoghue to express their concerns.
"Three national Traveller organisations have been legally advised that the legislation breaches the Equality clause of the Constitution," Ms Catherine Joyce co-ordinator of the ITM said.
They told Mr O’Donoghue that Travellers were forced onto the roadside because of the Governemnt’s failure to provide accommodation.
Their meeting came before the Minister addressed a meeting charged with taking the first steps in drawing up a National Action Plan against Racism.
The ITM say the proposed amendment to the Housing Act being debated before the Seanad today is discriminatory and will lead to the criminalisation of 1,200 families around the country.
The new measure, proposes to change trespass from a civil to a criminal offence with €3,000 fines and/or a month's imprisonment for those found guilty of breaking the new law.
The Department of Enivronment say the measure is primarily aimed at large-scale illegal encampments, which local authorities in Dublin say cost hundreds of thousands of pounds a year to clear up.
Meanwhile, the Irish Hotels Federation has condemned the action of a group of Travellers in Co Waterford, who were, it alleged, attempting to "extort" money from local hotels by charging up to €3,000 for vacating lands owned by hotels.
Mr O’Donoghue told the anti-racism conference today that people needed to accept what were for some "unexpected, bewildering and unsettling" changes in recent years.
He said some people "have reacted - to people of colour in particular - in a hostile and resentful manner."
Some public representatives have recently made controversial statements regarding immigrants. Fianna Fáil Cork North Central TD Mr Noel O'Flynn provoked outrage earlier this year when he described immigrants as "spongers" and "wasters". And there have been a number of attacks on young men which the Garda have described as racially motivated.