Ms Chrissie O'Sullivan:

I thank the Chairman and the committee for the opportunity to speak today. In a few short words I shall convey the anger, hurt and betrayal that my community has experienced and is experiencing following the revelation in an article printed by The Corkman newspaper of an underspend of nearly €6 million in our area. That happened at a time when many Traveller families live in deplorable conditions. Many Traveller families must live in overcrowded facilities and in the yards of their parents. Many Traveller families, particularly young Traveller families, have been forced into rental accommodation. They must deny their Traveller identity in order to secure private rental accommodation, a situation that has huge impact on the lives of young Travellers.

It is a constant battle in our area to convey the amount of Traveller accommodation issues in our local authority to three different local Traveller accommodation consultative committees, LTACCs. My county council area is divided up into three divisions, the south, north and west Cork council divisions, and each area has its own LTAC committee. Travellers try hard to participate in and convey the reality of living there to these committees.

I would like to add to the views expressed earlier today about the lack of success at the LTAC committees. My area has three LTACs but there is no joined-up thinking. The three committees never meet and have not adopted a joint policy approach to deliver Traveller accommodation. Subsequently, we have failed miserably to deliver Traveller accommodation in my area.

I shall outline an example from my area in the south Cork County Council area. In 1991 a group housing scheme was built for seven Traveller families and 22 Traveller families have come out of those seven houses in the past 22 years. All of the families have been forced into standard accommodation. I say "forced" at a time when within less than half of a mile of the group housing scheme there was a site in a state of demolition for in excess of 18 years. The demolition was taking place in order to refurbish the site when a Traveller family moved in that consisted of parents and their ten children. It was only this year that the family's accommodation needs were met. They had to wait 18 years. That happened at a time when eight of their ten children have married and left home. The family had to live all of the time on a site that resembled war torn Beirut. I am ashamed to say that I am on a committee that presided over that situation for 18 years. At the time there was €6 million available to spend and I refer to just one area. Every year in north Cork many Traveller families were told that there was no money and numerous official complaints will be lodged as a result. The families were told that they could ask for Traveller-specific accommodation but they would, in time, be provided with a standard house. We are now faced with many frustrated Traveller families who have been left with no confidence in the system. If we could table a motion of no confidence then I would do so tomorrow morning. Travellers have no confidence in Cork County Council to deliver a Traveller accommodation plan because it has failed miserably to provide for my community. The same experience has been repeated throughout the country.
Why is a budget handed every year to a local authority that cannot plan, develop or spend the funding but returns the money? If the local authority was a commercial company then the Government would not award it a tender to spend a yearly budget because it cannot deliver on its promises. Local authorities who fail communities cannot be sanctioned in this country. My community has been failed when it comes to Traveller accommodation and we are beyond talking. The rhetoric that takes place at these committees is stomach turning at times. I apologise if I sound passionate and angry but I want to convey the anger felt by my people the length and breadth of the country, particularly in my area. At a time when the country is broke we hang our heads in shame because we cannot today, tomorrow and probably not for the next ten years deliver on Traveller accommodation. The troika tells us every other day on the news what we must cut back on and what to do for our communities in order to keep our heads above water. We are drowning. We are on the Titanic and we are simply shifting deck chairs as far as Traveller accommodation is concerned.

I shall ask the Chairman my question again. Why do we consistently give a group of people, including myself because I am a representative in the area, a budget they cannot spend or deliver with? Surely someone took the decision that there was no need to spend the money in the area and someone, administratively, took the responsibility to return the money. This all happened at a time when I had to tell my community, day in and day out, that there was no money available. There were also times when there was no social worker available in my area so there was nobody to answer calls about the matter. In my area two social workers were on sick leave for two years and nobody was available to replace them. Therefore, nobody could answer the calls made by members of my community. I took the issue to the LTAC committee again. We are joint partners around the table but Travellers are silent partners because no one has listened to us. We lodged a complaint about the matter with the LTAC and were told it would be dealt with but it has not been. Families rang me up asking me to do this and that but I am powerless in a system that was set up by settled people for settled people. My group cannot ask Travellers to do something, all we can do is convey the message. We are powerless and have no sanction. All that we can do is say "please, this is what needs to be done". We, as Travellers, have actively participated in every committee that we have been asked to attend but we have not benefited. Nobody can show me a committee that we have refused to participate in. My group has not seen positive effects in our community. We need answers at this point. We do not want to read newspaper articles in The Corkman that leave us wondering how an underspend can happen under our noses. I thank the Chairman.