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GREEN Party Senator Róisín Garvey apologized for any offense inflicted on Travelers after telling colleagues she learned from working with members of the ethnic minority not to use ‘big words’ when trying to attract voters.
It also emerged that Ms Garvey voted against a traveler accommodation program in Co Clare last November when she was a councilor. The senator, who was appointed to the Seanad by Eamon Ryan, said Saturday that this was because there had been no consultations with the travel community in the county.
During a debate at the party’s National Convention on Friday, Ms. Garvey said she had learned from working with the Travelers that party activists should “choose their words.”
The Clare-based senator said of rural voters: “We don’t have to give them statistics on carbon this and climate that and use a huge vocabulary …
“We really have to choose our words. I guess I learned this by working with Travelers for a few years. If you start to interact with people and you are using, even the word ‘sustainable’ or ‘biodiversity’, this is the vocabulary that new things and not we should assume that people understand what they are.
“Let’s talk about the flowers, let’s talk about the cattle. Let’s talk about the robin, the sparrow. I think colloquialism is important and I think simple vocabulary includes everyone.”
Traveler rights activists criticized the comments. Eileen Flynn, the first female Traveler appointed to the Oireachtas, said the language was “not appropriate,” but said she accepted the point Ms. Garvey was trying to make. Dr. Sindy Joyce, who is a member of the Council of State, said she was “shocked” and “sick” by the comments.
The comments were also condemned by various Green Party groups, including Queer Greens, who tweeted: “As we represent a minority within the Green Party, it is appalling to see this behavior from Senator Garvey. We stand in solidarity with the traveling community ”.
Speaking to Independent.ie on Saturday, Ms Garvey said: “I am so sorry if I offended any Traveler. That was not my intention. I have learned much more from travelers working with them than I ever taught them.
“I believe that politicians should use language that is inclusive and direct. At no time did I suggest how people should talk to travelers or rural dwellers. He was speaking in general terms about how we should communicate better and more clearly. “
Garvey said he would try to reach the traveler’s rights group and that he had already spoken with Ms Flynn.
Ms Flynn told Independent.ie: “When I first read it, I laughed because I thought it was making rural people and travelers appear to be chunky, but I read it again and I think its key message was to be inclusive.
“I don’t think she meant to hurt by saying what she said. I think it was really about being inclusive with the community. She didn’t say it well, her language was not appropriate, and obviously some Travelers would be offended by that. “
In November of last year, Ms. Garvey voted against a traveler accommodation program in Clare, describing the vote as “completely useless” as the plan would be adopted by the council executive anyway.
On Saturday he explained that the Clare Public Participation Network, a network of community collectives and volunteers, asked the councilors to reject the Traveler’s accommodation plan “due to their lack of consultation with the very people they supposedly intended to accommodate.”
In a letter sent to the council last year, Clare PPN said the program was approved “without input from the Traveler Community” and urged the local authority to build relationships with the community.
Online editors
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