Civil society monitoring report on the quality of the National Traveller and Roma inclusion strategy 2024-2028 in Ireland

Although we recognise 'Roma' as an umbrella term, throughout this report, we refer to 'Travellers' and 'Roma' to clearly identify the distinct situations, identities, and experiences of the Traveller and Roma communities in Ireland. The 2022 Census records that there are 16,059 Roma living in Ireland (the first time Roma were included in the Census) and 32,949 Travellers (an increase of 6 per cent from the 2016 Census). This report focuses on the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy II 2024-2028 (the Irish answer to the EU Roma Strategic Framework 2020), the successor strategy to the 'National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy 2017-2021'. The National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy II (NTRIS II) 2024-2028 was published in July 2024 by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY), following a strategy development process that commenced in June 2022. A number of consultations were undertaken with a range of stakeholders to inform the development of the NTRIS II: - In September 2022, the NTRIS Steering Committee engaged in high-level reflection on learning from the implementation of the NTRIS, to explore what had worked well/not worked well and what changes were needed to strengthen the successor strategy. - In March 2023, the Institute of Public Administration moderated a consultation with the NTRIS Steering Committee on the strategy's oversight, implementation process, and performance indicators, with a summary report produced by DCEDIY. In September and October 2023, six regional consultations were facilitated by independent consultants with the Traveller and Roma communities (four with the Traveller community and two with the Roma community). A guide for this consultation process was developed by the DCEDIY and agreed with Traveller and Roma organisations on the NTRIS Steering Committee. During 2023-2024, DCEDIY led consultations with government departments and stateagencies. In May 2024, the draft NTRIS II and Action Plan were submitted to the NTRIS Steering Committee members for consideration and feedback. The finalised strategy and Action Plan were published on 31 July 2024.