He was responding to the publication of a report by an Oireachtas committee that urged An Garda Síochána to acknowledge “evidence of racial discrimination against Travellers” contained in a 2022 report by academics at the University of Limerick (UL).

The Oireachtas joint committee on key issues affecting the Traveler community also called for the introduction of a “ticketing system” to record stop and search cases, as well as an “ethnic identifier” in criminal justice systems to collect data related to nomads.

Cathaoirleach Committee Senator Eileen Flynn said: “However, for too long the Traveler community has not felt full equality before the law.

Members of the Traveler community report that they are targeted by An Garda Síochána and are underserved when they report crimes to gardaí.

“In addition, many Travelers suffer discrimination when participating in judicial processes. “A Garda Síochána must recognize the findings of the Irish Traveler Access to Justice Initiative report which highlight a practice of racial discrimination of Travelers by some gardaí and take action to address it.”

He said the UL report found that around half of the Travelers surveyed said they had been in a house that had been searched by Gardaí, and 60% felt that the previous time they were stopped and searched by Gardaí it was because they were Travellers.

The survey found that only 8% of travelers felt that gardaí treated everyone fairly, compared to 71% of the general population.

The report said Travelers were overrepresented in prisons and youth detention centres.

In a statement, Garda management said it was in favor of an ethnic identifier for data collection, but said its legal advice was that legislation was needed to facilitate this.

The allegation of racial discrimination by members of An Garda Síochána is very serious and An Garda Síochána would ask any representative group complaining about it or individuals themselves to report any allegations in this regard to our attention or to the attention of Gsoc so that they can be examined.

He added: “As there is no legal basis for the collection of ethnic identifiers during Garda operations, there is no concrete data available to support the claim that ethnic profiling is carried out by An Garda Síochána.”

He said he ran a policing and human rights course with UL and had established a Garda Traveler Advisory Group and Garda-Traveller Dialogue Days.