Aengus Ó Snodaigh
Question:16 Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress which has been made to date on the implementation of Traveller accommodation programmes. [12328/04]
View answerThursday, 29 April 2004
Questions (21)
Written answers
Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (Mr. N. Ahern)
Under their five year Traveller accommodation programmes, local authorities provide accommodation for Travellers in Traveller specific accommodation, such as group houses and halting site bays, and in standard local authority houses. Local authorities also assist Travellers in providing their own accommodation through the shared ownership and tenant purchase schemes and the special Traveller house purchase grant. Local authorities also refurbish existing accommodation to modern standards.
In the first four years of the accommodation programmes, 2000 to 2003, local authorities provided or assisted in the provision of permanent accommodation for an additional 1,369 Traveller families. This includes an additional 487 families in Traveller specific accommodation, 681 families in standard local authority accommodation and 201 families in accommodation provided by Travellers with the assistance of local authorities. A further 236 units of permanent Traveller specific accommodation were refurbished to modern standards and 228 units of temporary or emergency accommodation were also provided.
Funding provided by my Department amounted to just under €95 million for new and refurbished Traveller specific accommodation in the years 2000 to 2003. A further €40 million has been provided in my Department's Vote for this purpose in 2004. This is in addition to expenditure on standard local authority houses, provided under my Department's local authority housing programme, allocated to Traveller families.
Since the commencement of the programmes, the number of Traveller families on unauthorised sites reduced from 1,207 families at the end of 1999 to 788 families at the end of 2003. This reduction of 419 families constitutes a significant and consistent reduction since the programmes started and I expect it will continue in the final year of the programmes.