Traveller costs in Clare criticised
For the current year, Clare County Council has budgeted to spend €910,288 providing maintenance of its standard 1,550 local authority housing units compared to over €492,019 looking after 65 Traveller accommodation units.
In 2009, the council spent €565,000 on maintenance and management of Traveller accommodation sites. This figure increased to €628,000 in 2010.
Additional expenditure on refurbishment after vandalism in 2010 at Beechpark, Ballymaley and Ballymurtagh came to €90,000.
Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee chairman Cllr Brian Meaney warned that the current cost of maintaining Traveller group housing was “unsustainable” and had to be drastically reduced.
Even though Traveller accommodation funding can be recouped from the Department of the Environment, Mr Meaney said it was wrong to be continually expect the taxpayer to foot the bill.
“We have to ask the question— do we need to educate people how to live in houses?”
He recalled that Traveller housing was provided in Lees Road, Ennis, in the 1970s, was vandalised once before a refurbishment programme, only to have dwellings substantially damaged again.
However, when the houses were made available to the general public, Cllr Meaney said there were no major problems and residents now live in a thriving happy community.
