Halting site needed for traders, says councillor

AS THE festive season gets into full swing, Kerry is braced for the annual influx of Traveller traders, but the county still has no halting site for them.

Large numbers of traders in caravans arrive in Kerry during an eight-week period each summer.

Some park on roadsides, while others move into car parks and open spaces in housing estates and the environs of beaches.

Puck Fair, in Killorglin, the Rose of Tralee Festival and Listowel Races are major attractions for them.

FF Councillor Michael Cahill, a businessman in the popular blue flag beach area of Rossbeigh, on the Ring of Kerry, yesterday said it was time the council met its obligation to provide a halting site for transient traders.

“The onus is on the council’s housing and roads departments to accommodate these people when they come here during the summer festival period,” he said.

“It’s high time the council provided facilities. I know there will be problems in finding a suitable site, but there must be a site somewhere.

“We have to put up with the same problems, year after year, but the council seems to be turning a blind eye. As well as road safety concerns, there are also health issues here, as these people don’t have any sanitary facilities and cause a nuisance in communities.”

Council officials and gardaí are the first to be called when caravans move in, but there are difficulties about removing them, as the law stipulates there must be a designated alternative area for them.

Under the Traveller Accommodation Act 1998, a local authority is obliged to provide sites for the accommodation of travellers “other than their normal place of residence and having regard to the annual patterns of movement by Travellers”.

However, a Kerry County Council spokesman said they had no plans to provide a halting site.

“These are commercial traders and they should secure their own accommodation in commercial sites in Kerry,” he said.

The spokesman also said festival organisers had a responsibility to provide accommodation for campers and caravan owners.

“The council is prepared to cooperate with festival organisers in providing such accommodation,” he said.

Last week, more than 10 caravans, which had moved into a car park near the blue flag beach at Banna, moved on after the intervention of gardaí, council workers and Sinn Féin TD Martin Ferris.