Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 March 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Provision of Traveller Accommodation: Discussion

9:30 am

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

I thank the witnesses for coming in and for their presentations. I am a Deputy for the Cork North-Central constituency. As I mentioned to the Minister when he was in earlier on, Cork North-Central is the constituency that contains Spring Lane, Blackpool and Nash's Boreen. I notice from some of the handouts that I have been given, that those halting sites, had been highlighted as case studies of what is wrong and what is shameful, in how issues have been dealt with. I strongly agree with those points.

I listened to the points raised by Mr. Walsh about resistance and opposition from within the settled community being an issue and a problem in terms of resolving Traveller accommodation issues. I am familiar with that. Yes, that is an issue, but the point is, it cannot be an excuse and it does not explain the situation. It does not explain the fact there was €40 million for Traveller accommodation in 2008 but that it was cut to €4 million. There was a 90% cut in the middle of the austerity years. It does not address the issues raised by the European Committee on Social Rights, that there are human rights violations taking place here. Where there are human rights violations taking place, whatever needs to be done in order to resolve them must be done. That is my first question. It is addressed to any or all of the representatives of the Traveller groups here today.

I refer to the question of taking powers out of the hands of local authorities and giving powers to a body that is charged with resolving issues, and An Bord Pleanála has been mentioned. Could the witnesses give more information and detail as to what they would like to see in that regard? I made the point earlier to the Minister that I would normally be extremely reluctant about taking powers from local authorities, but if there are human rights violations, that is a strong argument to say this has to be considered now. I would like to hear more from the witnesses on how they would see that panning out.

The second question I have, again for any or all of the representatives of the Traveller groups, relates to Storm Ophelia. Mr. Collins mentioned it in passing when he was talking about the weather crisis last week and what Travellers have to deal with on a regular basis. It is a number of months since Storm Ophelia but I am struck by the number of people who are living in caravans that do not have a proper roof, the number of people who have been offered second-hand caravans with single glazed windows, caravans that are the wrong size for the halting sites and so on and the number of people who are still in emergency accommodation. Do the witnesses have any more information on the number of people who are still in emergency accommodation after Storm Ophelia? I would like to hear more about how that storm affected the community as well as the events of last week.

I have a final question which might seem a little bit off beat for a discussion at the housing committee but it is becoming more of an issue. I have always noticed in my dealings with the Traveller community that there was an awareness, which was particularly strong among women, that Travellers would not be second class citizens anymore and there was a determination to fight against that. It struck me from a number of dealings that I have had with young Travellers in recent times that that seems to be becoming a quite powerful feeling among young Travellers, in particular. I had a conversation with a group of young Travellers around the time of the Standing Rock Native American protest in the United States. They were extremely knowledgeable about it and talked about how members of the LGBT community in Ireland are now standing up for their rights as are other minority groups in Ireland and around the world. I would be interested in hearing a little bit about changes in attitudes, consciousness and political awareness among Travellers in general but young Travellers in particular. Do the witnesses notice particular changes as a result of the housing and the accommodation crises and other issues they are dealing with?

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