Minister for Mental Health, Mary Butler TD announces the inaugural meeting of the National Traveller Mental Health Specialist Group
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 30 January 2026
- Last updated on: 30 January 2026
Minister for Mental Health, Mary Butler TD announces the inaugural meeting of the National Traveller Mental Health Specialist Group
- The Group will be independently Chaired by Dr Fiona Keogh who brings a wealth of experience to the group through her extensive career in health services research and policy analysis.
- The lived experience of Travellers will play a central role in delivering a new Traveller Mental Health Action Plan.
- Targeted suicide prevention measures for Travellers are showing early impact and Offaly Traveller Movement is selected to develop first dedicated Suicide Bereavement Liaison Service for the Traveller community.
Minister for Mental Health Mary Butler has welcomed the first meeting of a Traveller Mental Health Specialist Group taking place today at the Department of Health.
The Specialist Group was formed by the National Implementation and Monitoring Committee (NIMC) for Sharing the Vision, Ireland’s Mental Health Policy at the request of Minister Butler. It was established to provide a focus and leadership to identify specific supports for Traveller mental health given the persistently poor mental health outcomes for this Community.
Over the past two Budgets Minister Butler has prioritised Traveller mental health and funded dedicated initiatives, with combined additional funding of €780,000 over two years. The additional funding has been used to expand counselling service capacity and develop more culturally appropriate mental health supports with the Traveller community. As a result, the number of clients supported by the Traveller Counselling Service increased by 50% towards the end of 2025 compared with the previous year.
Work is also underway to develop a dedicated Suicide Bereavement Liaison Service for Travellers, with the tender for this work awarded to the Offaly Traveller Movement. This is a vital project to ensure that Travellers bereaved by suicide are supported with a culturally appropriate service to reduce risk of further suicides in families and communities.
The purpose of the Specialist Group is to provide advice to the Minister, the HSE, and Government department through the production of the “Traveller Mental Health Action Plan”. The plan will detail recommendations for responding to the issues affecting the mental health of Travellers in a way that meets the specific needs of the Traveller community. It is also aligned with Sharing the Vision and other relevant policies and strategies.
The Specialist Group will support the work of the Health Service Executive’s (HSE’s) National Traveller Mental Health Working Group who are responsible for the coordination of the actions associated with Traveller mental health within the National Traveller Health Action Plan.
The Specialist Group on Traveller Mental Health has been allocated 12 months as a timeframe to complete their scope of work.
Minister Butler said:
“I am really pleased to announce the first meeting of this important group and I’m looking forward to receiving the group’s action plan for culturally inclusive services for Travellers. I particularly welcome the participation of members with lived experience on the Group, which is critical to the success of any such deliberative body.
“I established this group following a meeting with the National Traveller Mental Health Network last year, as I believe we need a wider Government lens on the social determinants of mental health of members of our Traveller Community. As Mags Casey, chair of the Network said, “nothing about us, without us”, and I’m so grateful to the Network for participating in the specialist group.
“I’m also encouraged that the work of this group will be further supported by a lived experience reference panel, who will contribute to the development of the action plan. It is vital that the people who need our services are at the heart of the design, development, and delivery of the systems we build to serve them, and I believe that this lived experience input will provide critical insights to ensure culturally appropriate mental health care supports for the Traveller Community.”
Dr Fiona Keogh, Chair of Reference Group said:
“I am looking forward to working with all members of the Specialist Group over the next 12 months to produce an action plan that can improve mental health outcomes for Travellers. The structure of this Group ensures that the views and opinions of those with lived experience are placed front and centre of this process. It will provide an opportunity to identify gaps in service provision and develop culturally appropriate approaches to service improvement for the Traveller Community across the spectrum of service improvements set out in Sharing the Vision recommendations.”
Notes
Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone promotes a population health approach that contains universal recommendations that benefit everyone in society. It also acknowledges that additional work is required to promote mental health and build resilience among specific priority groups who are at greater risk. Travellers are considered a “priority group” under Sharing the Vision. Several Recommendations have specific relevance for priority groups generally; however, there remains an opportunity for detail to be developed and expanded in respect of Travellers’ specific mental health needs.