Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 June 2012
434 Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the number of Traveller families who have been allocated homes in the different local authority areas for each of the past five years; the number of families on each of the lists in each council area; the progress that is being made in relation to the Traveller housing plans in each of the local council areas. [29056/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn accordance with the provisions of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998, responsibility for the assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers and the preparation, adoption and implementation of multi-annual Traveller Accommodation Programmes, to meet identified housing need, rests with individual housing authorities.
While the detailed information sought in relation to the number of Traveller families who have been allocated homes within each local authority is not available in my Department, data on the numbers of Traveller families accommodated across the range of accommodation options can be viewed on my Department's websitewww.environ.ie. In addition, details of Traveller-specific units of accommodation completed from 2002 to 2010 are included in the annual reports of the National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee (NTACC), copies of which are also available on my Department’s website and in the Oireachtas Library. The NTACC report for 2011 is not yet available.
My Department does not hold real-time information on the number of households on local authorities' waiting list. However, a statutory assessment of housing need is carried out every three years by all housing authorities. The most recent assessment took place in 2011 and details, including information in respect of Travellers, can also be viewed on my Department's website.
The current round of Traveller accommodation programmes will run until 2013 and local authorities were requested to carry out a mid-term review of their programmes by 31 December 2011. The Government remains committed to the provision of Traveller accommodation and significant progress has been made in recent years. In 1999, prior to the first Traveller Accommodation Programme, the Annual Count of Traveller families estimated that there were a total of 4,790 Traveller families in the State. Of these 4,790 families, some 1,207 (25.2%) were living on unauthorised sites. The 2011 Annual Count has shown that despite a large increase in the number of Traveller families to 9,535, the numbers of families on unauthorised sites had fallen to 327 (3.43%).
