Councils fail to provide Traveller halting sites

LOCAL authorities have no hope of delivering on their legal obligation to provide halting sites or other accommodation for Travellers, it emerged yesterday.

Halfway through a five-year plan to provide almost 4,000 Traveller accommodation places nationwide, less than one-fifth of these units have been provided.

Less than 100 more families have been accommodated in halting sites since the start of the plan, just 100 in group housing and under 300 in standard housing, figures from the minister’s advisory committee reveal.

The revelations come as gardaí and local councils enforce new trespass laws, confiscating caravans and prosecuting their owners, raising tensions among the country’s 5,000 Travelling families.

While Environment Minister Martin Cullen has the power to reduce or hold back State grants to local councils failing to live up to their statutory obligations, he has indicated that he will not do that.

But Traveller representatives say sanctions are the only way councils will confront the contentious Traveller accommodation issue.

Environment Department officials are preparing a report on the lack of progress.

A spokesman said the results of a questionnaire issued to each local council by the department’s Traveller accommodation unit were being analysed.

The minister has acknowledged that progress in the provision of Traveller accommodation, particularly in relation to halting sites, has been difficult. But to establish details on the actual causes of delays, the questionnaire asks for reasons for the lack of progress in specific cases.

Officials say the assessment will be published in the autumn, and a full review of the Traveller accommodation plans for 2000 to 2004 will begin later this year.

Mr Cullen argued that progress had been made, as there were virtually no Traveller facilities 10 years ago, and huge sums were being invested in this area.

“There was only a couple of million pounds as it was at the time going into Traveller accommodation and facilities, now there is up to 70 million a year. So there is huge progress,” Mr Cullen said.

Traveller groups say that the introduction of the controversial trespass laws, allowing illegally parked caravans to be seized and their owners prosecuted, merely highlights the failure to provide adequate accommodation.

Irish Traveller Movement accommodation officer Gráinne O’Toole said councils must face sanctions and insisted that local residents’ objections can be overcome.

“When good quality accommodation is put in place, objections just fall away. It’s as simple as that,” she said.

Pavee Point cultural and accommodation officer Brendan Ó Caoláin said none of the local authorities was near meeting the targets under the legislation.

“Ironically, they will be very quick to use this trespass law, whereas there has been little effort to implement the accommodation programmes,” Mr Ó Caoláin said.