Senator Eileen Flynn says taxi driver refused to bring her home to halting site in Dublin

Describing the incident to the Seanad, senator Eileen Flynn said “we have a long way to go before we tackle racism in this country”.

“Last night, I got a taxi home from town and the taxi driver refused to take me into my house in a halting site.

“No matter what you are and no matter who you are, to a lot of people I am still just a member of the Travelling community.

“I’m still just a pikey, a knacker, somebody who came from absolutely nothing, and last night I felt that right to the cut of my stomach.”

Senator Flynn is the first Traveller to serve in the Oireachtas and has served in the Seanad since June 2020.

She explained her position as a public representative to the taxi driver, however, they still refused to drive to the halting site and Ms Flynn refused to pay.

She subsequently rang the gardaí to report discrimination and was told by the operator, “this is a waste of gardaí’s time”.

The driver then agreed to take Senator Flynn home if the garda operator stayed on the phone.

“I have to go through all of that,” she said, welcoming the new hate crime legislation going before the Oireachtas.

“We have a long way to go before we tackle racism in this country, and to be not brought where you want to go and to be judged on the basis of everybody in the community. We don’t judge settled people.

“Unfortunately, when you are a member of the Traveller community, even in 2023, being a Senator or what you will be, you will experience racism and discrimination.

“We need to do more than tackle it. We need to protect people and put good legislation in place,” she said.

Senator Flynn encouraged others that may go through a similar experience of discrimination to “call the gardaí, because you are not wasting gardaí’s time”.