Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Let me give an example of what really happens. In my constituency of Cork North-Central, there is one site at Nash's Boreen where a family has lived unofficially in a field for nearly 30 years. The family has a child with leukaemia and she must regularly travel to Birmingham for treatment. Thankfully, she is in remission but she still needs to travel regularly. Storm Ophelia was a disaster for that family because it destroyed the roof of their caravan in which they still live. They also do not have a replacement portaloo. The council will not act because the family live unofficially on the site. I can confirm that the family would take Traveller-specific accommodation if it was offered to them and appropriate.

A couple of miles down the road on Spring Lane in Blackpool a site with ten bays has been built. I believe the Minister visited the location before Christmas. Two new generations live at the site. There are 31 families, comprising 126 people, 59 of whom are under the age of 12. The under-12s do not have a safe place to play. As many as 25 people do not have proper access to toilets or washing facilities. A national fire safety audit was carried out in the aftermath of the Carrickmines fire. The audit outlined that there were huge ongoing fire risks at the site in Blackpool. Some remedial steps have been taken since the publication of the audit. When there is such overcrowding, one cannot say that the issue has been properly addressed. Again, the site suffered a lot of damage when Storm Ophelia struck and as many as 20 caravans were severely affected. The council has offered second-hand caravans as replacements. The second-hand caravans are single glazed and are not the right fit for the site. The root of this problem is the 50:50 rule. In other words, the Department will pay 50% and the council will pay 50%. The council budgets have been slashed. Therefore, when one must spend on such a scale, the council can only offer second-hand caravans that are completely inadequate.

I now refer to the bigger picture. As many as 4,700 Travellers in this State live in shared or overcrowded accommodation. Traveller homelessness is also 11 times higher than that suffered by the rest of the population. Therefore, it is no surprise that the European Committee on Social Rights ruled against this State less than two years ago. In a landmark judgment, the committee found that the Government had violated Travellers' rights under the European Social Charter. It also stated that there was insufficient provision of accommodation, inadequate accommodation and an inadequate protection of rights in cases of eviction.

It was stated that funding took a bit of a hit during the downturn. That is a bit of an understatement. Pavee Point states that in 2008, €40 million was allocated for Traveller accommodation and in 2013 it was down to €4 million. This is a 90% cut when cuts to social programmes across the board and cuts to Government spending across the board for the State as a whole were closer to 4% or 5%. There has been a failure by successive Governments and on the local authority front, with the track record of some local authorities being particularly poor in this regard.

The discussion seems to be focusing on the idea of taking powers out of the hands of councils. Normally, I am very reluctant even to consider the idea of taking powers out of the hands of local councils, but where councils are not doing their job and human rights are not being respected, it is a different matter. Traveller organisations have raised the idea of An Bord Pleanála or other national bodies having the power to act on these issues. I would like to see more of a democratic check on this whereby whatever body might be put in place would have democratic representation, and this would include representation for Traveller organisations and groups that represent the interests of Travellers. I would like the witnesses to comment further on this idea because we are getting to the stage where it will need serious discussion and debate.