Travellers bill to cost €450,000

TAXPAYERS will have to pay almost €50,000 to clean up and secure an 11-acre site taken over by members of the Travelling community last week.

The Department of the Marine-owned site in Wexford town is to be developed as part of the decentralisation of the Department of the Environment. The site will be secured with railings, gates and security fittings, junior minister at the Department of the Marine John Browne said.

Up to a dozen skips, along with trucks and other vehicles had to be brought in to clean up the site on Bank Holiday Monday when the Travellers left.

Staff from the sanitary section of Wexford Borough Council were brought in on their day off to clean up rubbish, household furniture and appliances left by up to 400 people.

Meetings had already taken place with local authorities in Wexford with a view to transferring part of the 11 acre site in question into the ownership of Wexford Corporation. But that situation has changed in recent months with the relocation of the Department of the Environment offices to the site, he said.

“We had a meeting on Wednesday morning with the county council and other bodies in the area,” the minister said. He added that meeting focused on putting in place security gates and railings to ensure the situation does not happen again.

“The officials at the meeting hammered out an agreement about who will pay for this. Nobody wants to see a reoccurrence of what happened last weekend. Certainly the site has to be secured,” he said.

The taxpayer will ultimately pay the cost of securing the site, according to Director of Services with Wexford County Council, Adrian Doyle. “We have had meetings with people from the OPW and Department of the Marine about putting up barriers. It will be quite expensive.

“We are talking about €35,000 to secure the site.”

The cost of the clean-up will also be passed on to the Department of the Marine, the Director of Services confirmed. “We will be sending the bill to the Department of the Marine for all of the works associated with the Travellers being on this site.”