Travellers call for more camping sites

Traditional camping sites for Travellers must be re-established across the island of Ireland as nomadism among the community will not die out, it was claimed today.

Travellers' representatives from both sides of the border said new research shows that although the majority of the community are settled, the nomadic part of their culture remains vital.

They are urging an island-wide network of traditional camping areas with facilities, the setting up of a National Traveller Accommodation Agency and reform of housing and planning laws to allow for nomadism.

Rose Marie Maughan, Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) national accommodation officer, told a conference that nomadism remains very important to Travellers.

"Nomadism is a historical tradition and part of Traveller culture," she said.

Both ITM and their counterparts Traveller Movement Northern Ireland commissioned the research into what Irish Traveller nomadism means in the 21st Century.

"The research dispels the notion that nomadism will 'die out' and identifies two profound changes in Travellers' experience over the last 50 years. These are urbanisation and sedentarisation," said Ms Maughan.

"The report noted that while nomadic Travellers form a small minority of the whole Irish Traveller population the tradition of nomadism, it continues to be very important to most Irish Travellers whether they themselves are nomadic or not."

The conference, Accommodating Nomadism in the 21st Century, marks the start of the annual awareness raising Traveller Focus Week.

Damien Peelo, Director of ITM, said there were housing laws in the Republic that provided for nomadism but the challenge remained to ensure they were put into practice.

He also claimed legislation criminalising trespass on public land should be repealed as it criminalised Traveller families awaiting accommodation.

"A solution would be the provision of a National Traveller Accommodation Agency which could progress the issue of nomadic provision," he said.

"This is in keeping with the 1995 Task Force report recommendation, which stated that such an agency would act as the proper vehicle to secure the delivery of Traveller accommodation."

He added: "We are interested in assessing with government and local authorities over the coming months if a national driver of this sort is a viable course of action."

Traveller Focus Week will see more than 30 events taking place across the country to highlight and discuss aspects of Traveller culture including arts and culture, accommodation, education, building relationships and Traveller youth.

There are around 22,400 Travellers in Ireland, made up of more than 7,691 Traveller families.