INDEPENDENT SENATOR EILEEN Flynn has said that Ireland has “a long way to go” to tackle discrimination, after she revealed that a taxi driver refused to take her home to a halting site.
Flynn is the only representative of the Traveller community across the entire Oireachtas, and was appointed by then-Taoiseach Micheál Martin in 2020.
The Senator told the Seanad that she was on her way home from Leinster House yesterday evening in a taxi, with the driver then refusing to take her into the halting site to her house.
“Last night, I got a taxi home from town and the taxi driver refused to take me into my house in a halting site,” Flynn told the Seanad.
“So if I went on to be the President of Ireland or a top surgeon or whatever you may go on to be, no matter what you are, to a lot of people I’m still just a member of the Traveller community.
“I’m still just a pikey, a knacker. Somebody who came from absolutely nothing and last night I felt that to the gut of my stomach.
“Thinking, oh my god, you’re never going to be good enough in society no matter what you do.”
Flynn told the Seanad that she would refuse to pay the driver for not taking her to the destination, and the taxi driver threatened to call the Gardaí.
However, the independent senator said that she instead called the Gardaí, saying that the taxi driver was committing a crime.
After calling the Gardaí, Flynn said that they told her it was a waste of Garda time and refused to deal with it. However, the taxi driver instead said that he would drop her into the halting site if she kept the Garda operator on the phone.
“We have a long way to go leader, before we tackle racism in the community… unfortunately when you’re a member of the Traveller community, even in 2023, being a Senator, no matter what you be, you will experience racism and discrimination.”
In response, Seanad deputy leader Regina Doherty said that if people did not call out this discrimination, it “keeps perpetuating and becomes nearly a part of accepted society”.
“You’re definitely not the first and unless we do something, you’re not going to be the last,” Doherty said.
“The thing that probably struck me most, other than the event last night, is what you said this morning is that ‘you came from nothing’. You absolutely did not come from nothing.
“Not only are you an equal member of this house, you have done so much to highlight the issues on behalf of your community that maybe most of us don’t even recognise.
“Its incumbent on all of us to make sure that not only we support you, but we recognise the difficulties that your community goes through and we do something about it.”
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