Vol. 431 No. 7
1 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Taoiseach if he will nominate one Minister to take responsibility for the co-ordination of measures and legislative changes to deal with the problems caused in many towns and communities throughout the country because of the activities of travelling traders descending in large numbers on such towns and communities; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The Government has decided to establish a working group, representative of the Departments of the Environment, Justice, Enterprise and Employment, Agriculture, Food and Forestry and Equality and Law Reform, the Revenue Commissioners, the Garda Síochána and the local authorities, to monitor the movement of large convoys of mobile traders, anticipate problems and enable preventative and, where necessary, corrective action to be taken. The task force will be chaired by the Department of the Environment and, in the circumstances, I do not propose to nominate a specific Minister as suggested by the Deputy.
The Taoiseach has taken the wind out of my sails. I have been pressing this issue with him for some time. I am delighted that at long last he has responded to the problem by setting up a group to deal with it. I would make it clear that in this case we are not talking about travellers in the accepted sense but about people who come from permanent residences, who descend on towns and communities and cause problems, particularly during the summer. Does the Taoiseach agree that the activities of these people have given rise to a lot of intimidation and harassment and that many elderly people living alone feel threatened by them?
I agree that on occasion old people feel threatened by traders coming to their doors either to sell or buy goods. There is also the whole question of tax, unfairness and lack of competition with legitimate traders. It is known that travelling traders take a lot of spending power out of communities and society does not get the full contribution from it. That is why we have set up this committee. They are to identify the deficiencies and see how they can be dealt with.
I will not rise to the suggestion of an amnesty for them. Could the Taoiseach give me an idea when we might have a report from this committee and when we might have some action to ensure a balance which will allow individuals a free choice to live as they wish without impinging on the rights of others?
The committee will be told directly that we want an early response in order to take corrective action. Whatever action can be taken will be taken.
