THE Department of Education has given a limited response to the recommendations of the Task Force on Travellers, the Dail Committee on Social Affairs has been told.
Submissions were heard from two travellers' organisations, the Irish Travellers' Movement and Pavee Point, yesterday.
While the task force report last year was welcome, it had to be asked how much progress had been made a year later, the ITM submission said.
Local authorities had set up traveller accommodation committees but some were including residents' groups on the committees, which would only lead to the institutionalising of conflict.
The ITM said one result of recent policy changes was the perception that travellers were a favoured community, which was not true.
"The 1986 ESRI report which concluded that the circumstances of the Irish travelling people is so intolerable, no humane or decent society once made aware of such circumstances could permit them to persist could equally apply today," it said.