{"id":378858,"date":"2026-04-02T21:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378858\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T21:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T21:27:08","slug":"former-employees-of-traveller-support-group-living-only-on-prayers-due-to-unpaid-wages-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/378858\/","title":{"rendered":"Former employees of Traveller support group \u2018living only on prayers\u2019 due to unpaid wages \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 20 former employees of a Traveller<\/a> support organisation in south Dublin<\/a> say they are owed wages and have no information about redundancy pay almost two months after being told the charity was closing.<\/p>\n

The former staff at the Sandyford-based Southside Traveller Action Group (Stag), who are all Travellers, say they are \u201cliving only on our prayers\u201d since being told by WhatsApp on February 17th that the organisation was going into voluntary liquidation. <\/p>\n

The message said the board had passed a motion \u201cto place the company into voluntary liquidation on the grounds it is insolvent\u201d and that \u201cformal confirmation of the liquidator\u2019s appointment and contact details will be issued shortly\u201d. <\/p>\n

The news came after several months of bitter division between staff and the board and its chair, Northern Ireland<\/a>-based Barbara Scanlon. There were also accusations of financial mismanagement.<\/p>\n

Six weeks on, however, outstanding wages remain unpaid and no information about a liquidator has been provided despite repeated requests for information from staff and their trade union, Siptu<\/a>. <\/p>\n

One of the oldest Traveller support charities in the State, Stag was founded in 1984 by a pioneering nun and Traveller rights campaigner, the late Sr Colette Dwyer.<\/p>\n

It has provided supports to hundreds of vulnerable households across south Co Dublin on issues including housing, education, employment, healthcare and mental health. <\/p>\n

Closure will almost certainly mean the loss of Stag\u2019s premises on lands secured by Dwyer in 1982 on a 250-year lease.<\/p>\n

One worker, who did not wish to be named, and who has worked with Stag for more than 20 years, said she had not been paid since January.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we got the message about Stag closing we haven\u2019t heard anything from any of them [on the board]. I have emailed and texted, and no response. They are just totally ignoring the messages,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are very upset and really struggling now. It is very hard to get work as a Traveller due to discrimination, so to make Travellers unemployed with the costs of everything going up, people are just living on prayers now, to be honest.\u201d <\/p>\n

Karen Smollen, industrial organiser with Siptu\u2019s community and voluntary sector, said the union could \u201cget no information\u201d from the Stag board about the appointment of a liquidator. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have completely shut us down. I am encountering the same issues as the workers. It is highly unusual,\u201d she said. \u201cNormally when a company goes into liquidation we will be told who will be overseeing the finances so our members will be named as preferential creditors and enabled to get redundancy.<\/p>\n

\u201cContacting the board is now nearly a daily mission for me … Stag was specifically set up for [Travellers] and to see them being treated like this now, it is dreadful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board of Stag has been approached for comment. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Department of Children<\/a>, one of the charity\u2019s lead funders, described the demise of Stag as a \u201cdeeply regrettable development\u201d. Over a period, he said, \u201cgovernance and financial challenges have been the focus of concern and attention for all State funders\u201d at Stag. <\/p>\n

\u201cNotwithstanding these concerns, and to ensure that the organisation could continue to provide services, all funders continued to make funding available while allowing the identified issues to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the department wanted to acknowledge the work of Stag \u201cover many years to advance the rights and wellbeing of Travellers in the D\u00fan Laoghaire-Rathdown<\/a> area\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir efforts, often in challenging circumstances, have made a difference to many lives. This includes the significant contribution … in supporting local Traveller families after the tragic fire that occurred at a halting site in Carrickmines in October 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 20 former employees of a Traveller support organisation in south Dublin say they are owed wages…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,44227,615,16089,61,60,2443,69796,20167,42856],"class_list":{"0":"post-378858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-department-of-children-equality-disability-integration-and-youth","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-dun-laoghaire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-sandyford","16":"tag-siptu","17":"tag-travellers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}