Mayor wants garda help for firefighters at illegal dump

The lord mayor of Cork has called for firefighters tackling blazes near a Cork halting site to be supported by garda personnel in the wake of multiple assaults over the last two years.

Last week, a fireman was injured after the fire service were pelted with rocks following a fire at an illegal dump next to the site at Spring Lane on the northside of Cork City.

Fine Gael councillor John Sheehan said the situation at Spring Lane is at a crisis level and insisted years of “tiptoeing” around the issue cannot continue.

Earlier this year, Cork City Council spent thousands of euro cleaning up a long-standing illegal dump at Ellis’s Yard in Ballyvolane, which is adjacent to the Spring Lane halting site. Although the area was cleared five months ago, illegal dumping is on the rise.

Mr Sheehan said the catalyst for the recent unrest is the attempt by the local authorities to try and stop the illegal dumping.

“The council did a big clear up costing over €50,000,” he said. “They put in place some security to try and stop the illegal dumping.

“Obviously there were people making money out of this illegal dumping and there was a reaction to that in terms of dumping around the halting site.

“Also, intimidation of the security workers who were there culminating in the burning out of their security cabin.

“The illegal dumping was an organised systematic business. There was a huge amount of rubbish. When the income stream from that stopped there was a reaction to that.”

Mr Sheehan said the situation ought to be tackled on a number of fronts. In the short term, gardaí are required to assist firefighters when they are called to the site.

“There needs to be garda back up and there needs to be prosecutions,” he said. “It is completely unacceptable behaviour.

We cannot ignore it. If this was happening in any other area of the city where you have massive dumping and burning of rubbish and intimidating a security guard and pelting firefighters with stones it would be raised. It would be addressed.

He also said the housing situation at the site needs to be addressed urgently. The halting site is one of the most overcrowded in the country.

The Traveller Visibility Group has said that the site is completely uninhabitable with dozens of families occupying a space initially built for 10.

Ultimately, Mr Sheehan said, “hard choices” need to be made in relation to the site “by both council and the state authorities but also by the Travellers themselves”.

“Unfortunately a lot of people are tiptoeing around that and the reality is that we need to make some hard choices,” he said.

The current situation isn’t serving anyone. It is leading to increased animosity.