As required by the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, each county and city council, borough council and the town councils of Bray and Dundalk have prepared and adopted five-year Traveller accommodation programmes covering the period 2000 to 2004 and are now in the process of implementing these programmes.
The following table shows the moneys recouped to local authorities in each year during the period 1998 to 2002 in relation to the provision of new Traveller specific accommodation and the refurbishment of existing accommodation. This does not include the cost of standard local authority accommodation provided for Travellers which was funded under my Department's local authority housing programme or housing provided by voluntary housing bodies and funded under my Department's voluntary housing schemes which was allocated to Travellers in this period. My Department continues to provide the necessary funding to meet the cost to local authorities of the provision of Traveller specific accommodation. Total expenditure for the provision of such accommodation during the first three years of the Traveller accommodation programmes was €65.46 million. A further €30 million has been allocated in 2003 for Traveller specific accommodation.