Use Army to move Travellers, says mayor

THE Army should be called in to remove illegal Traveller encampments from towns, the Mayor of Waterford said yesterday.

More than 100 traders descended on the seafront in Dungarvan last weekend with vans, caravans, cars and jeeps.

In a strongly worded attack, the mayor, Fianna Fáil councillor Nuala Ryan, said the town had been "taken over"

"The situation was just unacceptable. The gardaí can't be expected to shift 30 caravans with people inside them.

"I'm calling on the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Defence to put something in place so the gardaí in a town can immediately call on the Army or extra forces from other areas," Ms Ryan said.

The Travellers left Dungarvan on Monday after a warning from gardaí.

However, local radio station WLR FM was inundated with complaints from the public yesterday, including reports that flares were set off on Saturday, terrorising elderly residents.

One caller spoke of a weekend of total disorder, with the entire seafront being blocked off to ordinary traffic and locals being subjected to verbal abuse and intimidation by several members of the Traveller group.

The Traveller Visibility Movement said the lack of halting sites was the main reason for the problems.

Although local authorities are halfway through a five-year plan to provide 4,000 Traveller accommodation places, less than one fifth have been delivered.

Project co-ordinator Chrissie O'Sullivan said: "I think it's an utter disgrace that a local authority can ask for the Army to be called in.

"They've been given the power and resources to provide accommodation for Travellers but have failed completely.

"When are these programmes going to be delivered?

"Transient Travellers do litter and I'm not commending it. For a lot of Traveller families, they're living in the minute, just waiting to be moved the next day.

"It's very hard to get people to see their responsibilities when they're going to be gone in a day or two."