O'Reilly was speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on key Issues affecting the Traveller community, which met to discuss the report 'No End in Site – An investigation into the living conditions of children living on a local authority halting site' by the Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon.
The report found that a local authority had failed to consider the best interests of children living at an unnamed halting site, and that the site in question had not been maintained.
O'Reilly said that in her time as a Galway councillor she had been shocked by the treatment of the Travelling community on halting sites and that the report would not be a surprise to anyone active in their communities.
The senator highlighted how "there are problems with councillors voting against accommodation and there are an awful lot of political parties involved in that."
In 2019, Galway City Council neglected to apply for Traveller accommodation funding.
O'Reilly raised the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that provision of housing equates to providing adequate housing, adding that "I would argue that it has to be a home, it has to be something that reflects the culture of that particular section of society." She said that it was an area where "local authorities across all of the country are failing."
Dr Muldoon recommended that political parties ensure their members are not voting against Traveller accommodation.
