Pavee Point Meets with EU Commissioner to Give Recommendations on First European Anti-Poverty Strategy

As part of a delegation of Traveller and Roma organisations, under the European Anti-Poverty Network, Pavee Point met today with EU Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness, Roxana Minzatu, to discuss key issues in relation to Traveller and Roma poverty in advance of the first European Anti-Poverty Strategy.

“At European level Traveller and Roma are disproportionately impacted by poverty alongside other marginalised minor ethnic groups.” said Damaris Paun, representing Pavee Point, “so it’s crucial that our recommendations are taken on board in the development of this Anti-Poverty Strategy”

In Ireland, research conducted as part of the National Roma Needs Assessment found that almost 45% of Roma live in overcrowded homes often missing basic services like running water, electricity or gas while almost 50% reported not always having enough food to eat.

A 2020 survey by the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) found that one tenth of Irish Travellers lived in households where at least one person went to bed hungry in the preceding year, including 7 per cent of homes with children, while 40% had “great difficulties in making ends meet”. 31% of Travellers live in households that cannot pay for basic items and 28% of Traveller children in Ireland grow up in severe material deprivation.