Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 26 Apr 1995

Vol. 452 No. 1

Adjournment Debate. - Accommodation of the Travelling Community.

Ms O'Donnell

I am disappointed that the person against whom I wish to vent my anger, the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, is not here. In saying that I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State who is here. It is with the Minister for Equality and Law Reform, Deputy Taylor, who has overall responsibility for the travelling community, that I am extremely angry.

It is clear from a reply given to a question tabled by me yesterday to the Minister for Equality and Law Reform that he has abjectly failed to inject any urgency into the need for a national programme of halting sites and the general accommodation of the travelling community. The Minister seems to be totally unaware that the failure to deal on a national basis with the politically sensitive and controversial issue of travellers and their rights possibly represents a fatal blow to the continued and sustained goodwill of the settled community. I refer in particular to communities in Dublin.

Shortly after he was appointed with responsibility for the travelling community the Minister established a task force chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy McManus, which published its interim report in January 1994. Its first recommendation was that a national body should be established to monitor the national accommodation programme. Such a body would have statutory powers to require local authorities to meet their responsibilities. The objective was to achieve an integrated approach between all local authorities. Clearly there is an imbalance in the provision of halting sites throughout the country, it is done in an ad hoc way. While some local authorities have a policy others do not. This has led to an unfair burden being placed on my constituency of Dublin South, particularly the part for which South Dublin County Council has responsibility.

The number of travellers nationwide is 25,000 made up of 4,000 families. According to the last census 25 per cent of the total live in the greater Dublin area. My constituency of Dublin South is 22 square kilometres in size and currently caters for the housing needs of 270 traveller families. Dublin Corporation caters for 331, Fingal County Council for 194 and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council for 90, giving a total of 885 families in the greater Dublin area.

In the South Dublin County Council area there are six ten family halting sites, 14 families in group housing, 42 families in standard housing and three large temporary sites. A total of 101 families are being catered for, 159 families, 97 of which are living on temporary sites are in need of accommodation and, sadly, 62 are on the roadside. It is estimated, on good information, that the natural increase in the travelling community between now and the year 2,000 will be 4 per cent per annum.

It is clear from any analysis of the figures that the electoral area of South Dublin County Council is overburdened. It caters for 270 families compared with a figure of 284 for Fingal County Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council combined. In other words, South Dublin County Council is carrying half the burden in the greater Dublin area.

In my constituency of Dublin South, particularly in the Rathfarnham area, sites are being chosen not because they are suitable — far from it, some are unsuitable not only on planning grounds but also in terms of safety — but because they are available and there is a dearth of space in the horribly rezoned south county area. Because of bad planning decisions there are few sites available.

The Minister must reconsider the decision to provide 15 bay halting sites given that 15 traveller families can constitute up to 150 people, not to mention their animals and visiting relatives. It is much too difficult to integrate this level comfortably in a halting site among the settled community. No guarantees are given in relation to the proper maintenance of sites or the control of animals.

Everyone who knows me since my election will vouch for the fact that I have never opposed the provision of a halting site in my constituency. At enormous political and electoral risk to myself I have refused to sign petitions and requests to the county manager to stop the provision of halting sites. Responsible Dáil Deputies should support the legitimate social policy objective of looking after those families but we have to be fair and the figures indicate an unfair burden is being borne by my constituency.

I have run out of patience. At an early stage I made it clear to the Minister, who will have been three years in office in November, that unless a national strategy was devised the goodwill of the settled community would be exhausted. I am angry with him for his inactivity and his total abdication of his responsibilities in this area. It appears from his reply yesterday that there is no intention to redress the imbalance. He is putting the matter on the long finger and hoping that before the final report of the task force is published it will be time for a new Government and the matter will be out of his hands. This leaves me with no option but to withdraw my support for the provision of any further halting sites in my constituency.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment (Ms McManus)

I would like to set the record straight. As Minister of State with responsibility for housing and urban renewal I have a duty to meet the accommodation needs of the travelling community. As the greater Dublin area has a larger percentage of the settled population it also has a larger percentage of travellers. We are living in an era of greater urbanisation and it would be remarkable if this applied only to the settled community Clearly, it does not.

Because of my particular knowledge and experience I would give the provision of accommodation for travellers a high priority but this cannot be done unless everyone in the local authority system and Deputies accept their responsibilities. Hard decisions have to be made. It is not good enough to abdicate responsibility and state that one will not support the provision of halting sites in the future.

I would like to set out the present position on the provision of accommodation for members of the travelling community. Each local authority is responsible, as the housing authority for its area, for the planning, initiation and construction of housing and serviced caravan parks for travelling people assessed as in need of such accommodation and unable to provide it from their own resources. The authorities carried out an assessment of the accommodation needs of members of the travelling community in 1993. In addition, the authorities carry out a count of traveller households in November each year and details of each are published in my Department's Housing Statistics bulletin. My Department's responsibility is to provide the funding required by the authorities for the provision of such accommodation and a general advisory and supervisory service to ensure that technical standards and cost control procedures are observed.

A separate financial allocation is provided annually to local authorities for the construction of serviced caravan parks for travelling people and the authorities have been informed over the years that additional resources would be provided, in any year where needed, for the construction of such parks. The original annual provisions in each of the last four years were exceeded. The 1995 provision has been increased to £4.5 million which also includes provision for the construction of new group housing schemes for travelling people. This approach has been taken in the light of the interim report of the Task Force on the Travelling Community which recommended that a specific capital allocation, separate from the general housing construction allocation, be made for the construction of group housing schemes for travelling people.

Local authorities were advised in September 1994 that they should initiate proposals for serviced caravan parks, where they are required having regard to the 1993 assessment of need, for inclusion in their 1995 housing programme. When notifying authorities of their new housing "starts"— acquisitions for 1995 on 23 February 1995 — I asked them to let me know the serviced caravan parks and new group housing schemes they propose to start this year. I will be reviewing the overall proposals when all the returns are received from the authorities.

Apart from serviced caravan parks and group housing schemes members of the travelling community are allocated local authority houses and they, like others, should benefit from the increasing number of dwellings now becoming available for letting because of the expansion of the local authority house building programme since 1993. In 1994, over 150 houses were let to members of the travelling community.

As regards the establishment of a national programme, I will await to see what the Task Force on the Travelling Community says on the subject and I understand that its final report will be ready within the next few months. In calling for a national programme, I would draw the Deputy's attention to the section in the Programme for a Partnership Government 1993-1997 which states that the Government commits itself to the target of providing permanent, serviced caravan site accommodation for all traveller families who require such homes by the year 2000. Lest there is any misunderstanding on this matter, this is also the policy of the present Government.

It is Government policy that in framing new legislation appropriate functions should be devolved to local authorities and unnecessary controls removed. In 1991 local authorities were given full responsibility for the various new schemes in the plan for social housing and requirements for departmental approval in housing construction were reduced. Local authorities should be providers of a comprehensive and cohesive housing service, including halting site accommodation, to persons in need of acommodation to meet their requirements in this regard. There are some elements of a national programme there at present — for example, Government policy, national funding and national standards. What we need now is action on a national scale by all the local authorities so that traveller households are provided with suitable accommodation whether in housing or on halting sites. I would like to stress that while a few authorities have discharged their responsibilities in this respect commendably, performance overall has been very uneven. I am committed to ensuring that real progress is made on this provision. With that objective in mind I will be considering very seriously the recommendations of the task force on receipt of its report.