In accordance with the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, statutory responsibility for the assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers and the preparation, adoption and implementation of multi-annual Traveller accommodation programmes, designed to meet the accommodation needs of Travellers, rests with individual housing authorities. My Department’s role is to ensure that there is an adequate legislative and financial system in place to assist the authorities in providing such accommodation.
My Department provides 100% capital funding to housing authorities for the provision of Traveller-specific accommodation. Traveller families are also accommodated in local authority social housing dwellings, which are funded through the main local authority social housing programme. Details of the capital allocations and amounts recouped to local authorities in respect of Traveller-specific accommodation over the period 2008-2012 are set out in the following table:
YEAR
|
Allocation
|
Amount Recouped
|
Variation
|
-
|
(€)
|
(€)
|
-
|
2008
|
40,000,000
|
35,000,000
|
-4,000,000
|
2009
|
35,000,000
|
19,601,979
|
-15,398,021
|
2010
|
35,000,000
|
16,108,693
|
- 18,891,307
|
2011
|
15,000,000
|
9,314,910
|
- 5,685,090
|
2012
|
6,000,000
|
4,000,000
|
- 2,000,000
|
I intend to announce details of the 2013 capital allocations to local authorities in respect of their Traveller-specific projects as soon as possible.