Mr. David Joyce:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to present to it. The Traveller accommodation expert group was established by the Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy English, earlier this year in order to review the Traveller Accommodation Act 1998 and other legislation which impacts on the provision and delivery of accommodation to Travellers. The expert group met for the first time on 15 October. It has been tasked with thinking about the best way of approaching the delivery of Traveller accommodation, as well as providing the Minister of State with suggestions and key actions in the next six months.

The background to the setting up of the expert group is that A Programme for a Partnership Government contains a commitment to the establishment of a special working group to audit the current delivery and implementation of local authorities' Traveller accommodation programmes and to consult with stakeholders in respect of key areas of concern. On foot of this, the Housing Agency commissioned a report, on behalf of the Department, for an independent review of capital and current funding for Traveller-specific accommodation for the period 2000 to date.

The review had regard to the targets contained in the local authority Traveller accommodation programmes and units delivered, the current status of the accommodation funded and the funding provided for accommodation maintenance and other supports. On foot of this report, the National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, NTACC, advised the Minister to establish an expert group to review the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 and other legislation that impacts the provision and delivery of accommodation for Travellers. The terms of reference were drawn up in consultation with the NTACC.

These terms of reference were to review the effectiveness, implementation and operation of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 with a view to examining whether it provides a robust legislative basis for meeting the current and future accommodation needs of the Traveller community, which takes effective implementation into account in the context of the recognition of Traveller ethnicity in 2017; to examine national and international best practice in the provision of accommodation for nomadic communities to inform the legislative basis for meeting the current and future accommodation needs of the Traveller community; to review other legislation that impacts on the provision and delivery of Traveller-specific accommodation, including transient accommodation; to consult all relevant stakeholders at local and national level, including Traveller representative organisations and other stakeholder groups represented on the NTACC and the local Traveller accommodation consultative committees, LTACCs, with such consultation to include an invitation for written submissions and a series of meaningful national, regional and local workshops and focus groups; and to draft and present report and recommendations to the Minister within six months of commencement.

The Traveller accommodation expert group comprises three members. I will not go through the biographies, which are contained in the opening statement. The membership consists of myself and my colleagues, Professor Michelle Norris and Dr. Conor Norton. Dr. Norton sends his apologies this morning; he is out of the country on other business.

In respect of the initial focus of the expert review group, the first step taken by the expert review group was to gain an understanding of the key themes, challenges and issues on which to focus. To this end, the initial actions of the expert group were a desktop evaluation of research papers and reports considering the findings and recommendations, a desktop study and overview of planning code and planning issues and collation of planning statistics relating to Traveller accommodation and an understanding of current expenditure on Traveller accommodation, Traveller accommodation broken down, annual count, Census figures and Traveller homelessness. Some initial themes and barriers to the effective provision of Traveller accommodation identified by the expert group to focus on are land use planning and the interaction of the legislation and systems with the legislation on planning for Traveller accommodation provision; social housing provision, particularly, the provision of Traveller-specific social rented accommodation, for example, halting sites and group housing schemes, accurately measuring Travellers' preferences for Traveller-specific social housing compared to standard houses and apartments and the role of approved housing bodies, AHBs, in provision of Traveller accommodation; the increased use of private sector accommodation by Travellers either rented or privately owned, the push and pull factors, advantages and disadvantages associated with this development and how Travellers who wish to secure private accommodation can be supported; and key gaps in data provision which impede effective policy design and implementation, for example, annual patterns of movement by Travellers.

The next step the expert group intends to take is to complete the desktop evaluation, including a review of planning legislation, and to commence a consultation. The expert review group is now planning face-to-face consultations. Later this month, the expert group will meet with CENA - the Irish Travellers Movement, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, the Irish Council for Social Housing and Dr. Anna Visser of the Oireachtas Library. A member of the expert review group will attend the next NTACC meeting with Offaly LTACC later in November. Wider stakeholder consultation will take place in November and December with written submissions being requested from LTACCs, local authority social workers and other key stakeholders. We hope this committee will afford the members an opportunity to participate in this consultation and we are look forward to hearing members' views on the expert review of Traveller accommodation.

I thank the committee for allowing me to make an opening statement. I will take questions from members.