Trevor Sargent
Question:318 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for the Environment the procedures in place and consultation required for a local authority to plan and put in place halting sites for the travelling community. [15039/96]
Written Answers. - Halting Sites.
Under section 13 of the Housing Act, 1988, a housing authority may provide, improve, manage and control sites for caravans used by those who traditionally pursue or have pursued a nomadic way of life, and may carry out works incidential to such provision, improvement, management or control, including the provision of services for such sites. Guidelines for residential caravan parks for traveller families, issued by my Department to local authorities in 1985, recommend full consultation with the travellers who are to use the sites selected or their representatives and, where possible, with local community groups or their public representatives prior to site acquisition. The need for the fullest possible consultation process has been restated repeatedly since then, and is referred to in the policy document Social Housing — The Way Ahead.