Ms Brigid Quilligan:

In terms of recommendations, as members have heard from Ms Casey and other representatives from different areas, the situation for Travellers has never been worse in terms of accommodation. We have great legislation and great plans but they are not implemented. In fact, I must correct myself, we do not have great plans because at a local level, some of our plans are not as ambitious as they need to be given the needs on the ground. We know many young Travellers are not even being assessed for needs. They are not registering for accommodation because they are being told by council officials, social workers and others on the ground that they can apply for Traveller-specific accommodation but it will not be built in their lifetimes, so they may as well apply for standard housing. Effectively what is happening - despite legislation to protect our culture and way of life - is that people are being assimilated and are being told there is no other option. This was in the boom times - prior to the budgetary cuts we are discussing today. That is to set a bit of context for members and those in the Visitors' Gallery.

Even in the boom times, Travellers' needs were not met, despite consultation after consultation. I see Travellers here from north Cork, Kerry and Fingal. Travellers are consulted until they are blue in the face but the fact is that they are not listened to. We heard issues around anti-social behaviour. There is anti-social behaviours but Travellers are expected to police themselves while no other community is expected to do so. The onus should not be on members of any social housing scheme to police the other residents of the scheme. Poor management of sites, poor layout of sites and poor design of sites leads to anti-social behaviour. There is an element of criminality in every culture and, unfortunately, there is an element of criminality in ours but it is a very small minority. As Ms McMahon from Ballyfermot pointed out, a whole community can be penalised for the actions of a few.

Some of our recommendations going forward are as follows. The current structures are simply not working, or have never worked. A national Traveller agency needs to be put in place to address all policy issues relating to Travellers. All budgetary cuts in future need to be Traveller-proofed. Traveller education, Traveller accommodation, the Traveller community development sector and every area of our life has been impacted severely by the austerity measures. The cuts and the austerity measures against Travellers have been disproportionate and Pavee Point's report, published last week, proves that.

The Government must provide a legislative framework to monitor the development of the Traveller accommodation programme because, despite the best efforts of Travellers on local Traveller consultative committees, Travellers on the national consultative committee and the local authorities, there have been very poor outcomes and Travellers are living in appalling conditions. Comprehensive needs assessments need to be carried out. Not only do they need to be carried out on people in Traveller-specific accommodation but they need to be carried out on people who are in rented accommodation because most of our people have been forced into private rented accommodation and standard accommodation through lack of choice.

When new units of accommodation are being built local authorities should take into account the sustainability of the development. That should include the design, size, location, infrastructure and management. We need to move away from building 10 ft. walls on the periphery of towns.

We know from initial research that a lack of planning and depressing surroundings are a significant factor for Travellers deciding to leave accommodation and damaging the accommodation. Traveller conflict exists. Traveller voices need to be heard when it comes to the allocation of accommodation in their areas and Travellers should not have to police themselves. As Ms Catherine Joyce pointed out, we need to know what budget is available for Traveller specific accommodation in our local areas.

Finally, a comprehensive analysis for the underspend needs to be carried out. The voices of Travellers who have been involved in consultation for years must be included. They have been left to deal with broken promises. Travellers still live in appalling conditions and are rearing their grandchildren in the same place they reared their children. Why was the money not spent? The answer given by the councillors thus far seems logical. However, having dealt with the people who were consulted for years on successive accommodation plans their answer does not wash with us.