Figures on the overall accommodation position of all Traveller families are collated by my Department following the annual count of Traveller families undertaken by local authorities in November of each year. The annual count figures do not distinguish between families which are being provided with accommodation for the first time and families which have been previously accommodated and are being re-housed.
The latest period for which the annual count figures are available is the 12 month period up to 29 November 2002. The increase in the number of families accommodated in all types of accommodation including housing and halting site bays in the previous 12 months as shown by the annual count figures for the seven authorities in the greater Dublin area – Dublin City Council and South Dublin, Dún Laoghaire Rathdown, Fingal, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow county councils – are shown in the following table: