Irish Travellers Movement

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Active Citizenship and Community Development

Given that participative democracy can be seen as a crucial part of Active Citizenship, the Taskforce should be keenly aware that Community Development Groups are by their very nature involved in participative democracy. The Task Force should recognise the important role that Community Development Groups are already playing in promoting Active Citizenship. The Taskforce should be cognizant that the Government, in the White Paper on Developing the Relationship between the State and the Community and Voluntary sees Active Citizenship as:

“a political activity which gives citizens the opportunity to shape the society in which they live. Groups are given the opportunity to become involved in identifying local needs and developing strategies to meet these needs. Active citizenship is also about the strengthening of Community and Voluntary organisations. In modern society this process is particularly important in combating the potentially negative effects arising from centralisation of both economic and political decision-making and the consequent alienation of significant numbers of people, such as the long-term unemployed” [emphasis added]. (White Paper on a Framework for Supporting Voluntary Activity and for Developing the Relationship between the State and the Community and Voluntary Sector, p. 65).

The Taskforce should recognise that Active Citizenship is about the “strengthening of Community and Voluntary Organisations” and by allowing groups to “become involved in identifying local needs and developing strategies to meet these needs”.

Active Citizenship must be about meaningful participation and not tokenism masquerading as consultation. The Taskforce needs to promote Active Citizenship as a process for all voices to be heard, including voices that are critical of State actions. Community organisations and Traveller groups need to be funded, as stated above [“strengthening the Community and Voluntary organisations” to “identify local needs and developing strategies”] but not funded only to agree only with State agencies.

If the Taskforce is serious about developing Active Citizenship that “will contribute to a better quality of life for everyone” it must stress that participative structures are at the core of Active Citizenship; and that these structures must promote honest exchange of ideas, and that Community Groups are able to freely and confidently dissent from State policy and publicly critique it, free from the fear of funding being withdrawn ala the Citizen Traveller Campaign.

Participative democracy cannot work under the premise that groups acquiesce to negative State policies for fear that criticising Government policy will mean that they will no longer receive State funding; policies that may impact negatively on any community must be challenged by the representatives of that community in order for active citizenship to really exist.

Active Citizenship and ethnicity

The Taskforce states that it is looking for possible “barriers” that exist that prevent people from fully participating as active citizens in Ireland. One barrier that exists is the refusal of the State to recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority. The NESF states that “active citizenship relates, by right, to all members of society including those who are presently excluded on  grounds of ethnicity, social position or other identities” (NESF, Policy Implications of Social Capital, 2003); and therefore, all identities should be welcomed in the process of Active Citizenship, and that Active Citizenship should recognize those multiple identities.

In order for all citizens to participate equally in the process of Active Citizenship, the Taskforce needs to be aware of the role of culture and ethnic identity. As the Equality Authority has pointed out “Culture and identity will shape the needs of a group. Policies and programmes that respond to needs will only be effective to the extent that they take into account the culture and identity of the group concerned” (Traveller Ethnicity: an Equality Authority Report 2006, p. 9). Therefore in order to guarantee that the process of Active Citizenship fully includes Travellers, the Taskforce needs to recognise Travellers as an ethnic minority group. The recognition of Travellers as an indigenous ethnic group in Irish society is backed up a body of academic evidence, and even though Travellers are recognized as an ethnic group in both Northern Ireland and the UK, the government simply refuses to acknowledge this fact – not due to any academic evidence, but because they can, an obvious expression of a pure exercise in state power; a principle that fully negates any idea of Active Citizenship.

Here is one clear example where a positive development with regard to Active Citizenship can be met: that in order for real Active Citizenship to occur, Traveller ethnicity needs to be recognized by the Government.

Principles of Active Citizenship

It will be important that any policy measures developed in relation to supporting Active Citizenship by the Taskforce are underpinned by strong principles of inclusion, respect for diversity and promotion of plurality.  The ITM recognises that some groups that come together to make a difference are often defined as being involved in active citizenship; however it is conceivable that a residents organisation that opposes Traveller accommodation in their area or the arrival of new communities may see themselves as participating in active citizenship (often referred to as “negative social capital”). In order to avoid such scenarios arising, it is of paramount importance that the Taskforce must set out defining principles what it means to engage in Active Citizenship.

This is a very clear and simple step that would allow the Taskforce to reiterate what Active Citizenship and that for groups to participate in this process they must give a very real commitment to principles of anti-racism, equality and inclusion.


Education and Active Citizenship

At the launch of the consultation process on Active Citizenship on September 14th it was clear that many felt that the “concept” of Active Citizenship would be enhanced by being part of the school curriculum. The ITM would endorse the notion, if it were understood that inculcating a sense of Active Citizenship among young people could only be done if Active Citizenship were based on truly intercultural education that valued all its citizens equally and respected and catered for diversity in education. The NESF sees that education will be vital in developing “social capital”: “Learning to co-operate, communicate and engage for a more open, tolerant and active civil society is, potentially, a major part of a policy response to the development of social capital” (NESF, 2003, The Policy Implications of Social Capital). The ITM feels that any development of the concept of Active Citizenship in education requires adherence to the principles outlined above- namely that equality and respect for diversity would be embedded in the whole-school environment.


Concluding remarks

The Irish Traveller Movement sees the importance of Active Citizenship and applauds the focus that the Taskforce will bring to analyzing it with a view to supporting as many individuals as possible to engage in Active Citizenship. The ITM has made this submission aware of the importance of Active Citizenship given that our member organisations, being involved in the process of Community development, have constantly performed the task of Active Citizenship in empowering Travellers to engage in policy development that will shape their community and the huge contribution that this process makes to society.

In order to really develop Active Citizenship in Ireland, the Taskforce must take full stock of the comments of Honohan  cited in the Background Working Paper on the Taskforce on Active Citizenship:

“We should be way of exhortations to be more active or civic spirited, or to join voluntary associations in order to strengthen social capital, unless ordinary citizens are given a larger voice in decision-making, opportunities for meaningful participation and the material conditions necessary for active citizenship in the two sense outlined here”

The Government, and the Taskforce, if truly committed to the concept of Active Citizenship, can make a huge contribution to the quality of life of everyone. The Government cannot harangue Communities for not being involved in civic society if they are purposely excluded; Travellers (and other ethnic minorities) can only participate as Active Citizens if their ethnicity is recognized and meaningful participation includes the space for organisations to voice concerns and criticize the Government without the threat of funding being removed.

Active Citizenship can become a much stronger reality if those suggestions, which require very little on behalf of State in terms of new policy development (often requiring nothing more than meeting existing commitments), were implemented. Then, the State, in promoting “Active Citizenship” would truly have made a valuable contribution to a “better quality of life for everyone”.