Ms Ronnie Fay:

Pavee Point is delighted to have the opportunity to make a presentation to the committee, and we welcome the fact that the accommodation needs of Travellers and Roma are included in the overall discussions on the housing crisis. Today we focus explicitly on Traveller accommodation. However, we encourage the committee to examine the housing needs of the Roma community at a later stage in its deliberations.

Travellers experience marginalisation, discrimination and racism on the basis of their ethnicity at individual and institutional levels. Local authorities have continuously failed to provide permanent, safe and adequate Traveller-specific accommodation, which they are responsible for. Paradoxically, local authorities use health and safety issues as a basis for ongoing Traveller evictions. Subsequent to the tragic fire on a Traveller site in Carrickmines in 2015, a national fire safety audit of Traveller accommodation was rolled out. Even though we received an assurance that the audits would not result in forced evictions, a number of evictions have taken place throughout the country, leaving families homeless or forcing people to stay at the homes and bays of extended family members.

The lack of prioritisation and political will is illustrated in the cuts to the Traveller accommodation budget. Between 2008 and 2013, the Traveller accommodation budget was cut from €40 million to €4 million. This is a staggering 90%. Even more shockingly, there was an underspend of 36% of the allocated Traveller accommodation budgets by local authorities.

The Government's statistics obscure the reality of homelessness and accommodation conditions within the Traveller community. The term "sharing" when used with reference to houses and halting bays is a euphemism for chronic overcrowding. The term "basic service," when used with reference to bays, refers to sites that are often flooded and rat-infested and lack sufficient facilities. The term "unauthorised site" refers to Travellers who are forced to live at the roadside due to a lack of access to private rented accommodation, social housing and Traveller-specific accommodation. These Travellers are, in effect, homeless, but they are excluded from Government statistics on homelessness. This is wholly unacceptable. Travellers who are homeless need to be categorised accordingly and their housing and accommodation needs must be met in a timely manner.

According to the 2013 report of the national Traveller accommodation consultative committee, 361 Traveller families lived on "unauthorised sites," 188 Traveller families lived on "basic service" bays, 182 families shared permanent halting sites, 17 families shared basic service bays or transient halting sites, and 663 Traveller families shared houses. This means that roughly 5,500, or 18.6%, of the Traveller population are in need of proper accommodation provision. If one uses the census 2011 figures, this would be the equivalent of 853,415 of the general population in need of housing, yet the Traveller accommodation situation has not been regarded as a housing crisis.

Recently there has been a significant decrease in the number of Traveller families living in private rented accommodation. Between 2013 and 2015, 237 Traveller families left private rented accommodation. This figure correlates with an increase of 200 Traveller families sharing houses and an increase of 173 families on unauthorised sites. It is clear that Traveller families are responding to the accommodation crisis by relocating to sites that are already overcrowded, unsafe and uninhabitable.

In order to address these issues, we recommend the establishment of a statutory Traveller agency with powers to approve and enforce local authority five-year accommodation plans; the introduction of a monitoring and evaluation framework with associated sanctions, ensuring full expenditure of funds allocated to local authorities for Traveller-specific accommodation; an increased provision and appropriate resourcing of accessible, suitable and culturally appropriate accommodation for Travellers and Roma; a reinstatement of the Traveller accommodation budget to 2008 levels, at a minimum of €40 million; a moratorium on evictions and on the use of the Housing (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 2002 until the accommodation needs of all Travellers on the housing list have been met; the abandonment of the use of the terms "sharing," "basic" services, and "unauthorised sites" in order to provide an accurate reflection of the housing and accommodation crisis; and the inclusion of Travellers in Government statistics on homelessness.

We thank the committee for its attention and the opportunity to discuss these matters further.