Trespass law used mercilessly against Traveller community

WHEN the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002, also known as the Trespass Act, was passed last year many people predicted that it would in practice become a coercive instrument to be used against the Traveller community.

This measure tapped into an anti-Traveller vein in the political establishment and sailed onto the Statute Book with the fulsome support of the government and the Fine Gael party.

The upshot of this law is the appalling spectacle of the full apparatus of the state coming down mercilessly on Traveller families, regardless of the consequences for their health or the welfare of their children.