Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses, Professor Norris in particular, for their extensive body of work. I was taken by Senator Conway's remarks about leadership. I have no difficulty with what he said but the reality is that all parties and none are represented on these local authorities. We do not have to go far from Dublin and its suburbs to see the track record of people from all political parties and none. It is all very well saying that they all need to be responsible but that must be echoed through parties' memberships and contacts. I do not want to rehearse the issues Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, of which I am a former councillor, has had. Some of those problems were very recent and related to the disposal of lands identified for Traveller accommodation, with the support of the political establishment. That must be remembered. I will leave it there because that matter will be revisited at some stage and there will be some questions around it in the next week or two. We can talk about that again.

I do not agree with all of Professor Norris's recommendations. I will be honest and tell her why that is. I do not believe in the erosion of powers of democratically elected public representatives. That is something for which I have always argued strongly. The professor and her team will be aware that we have a revolving, five-year county development process and that there is extensive public consultation and engagement on the planning process, planning cost, etc. The witnesses will also be aware that each local authority adopts a housing strategy and a housing needs strategy, which it puts in place. The local authorities actively engage with the Traveller community about its needs. Some are better at it than others, which is an issue. The Traveller accommodation programme, TAP, is identified and marked with symbols on county development plan maps. There is a sense of certainty there for the Traveller community, its advocates and everybody else in the community. A county development plan is a contract with a citizen. It gives a certain degree of certainty about the future of the sustainable planning of the area, which is to be welcomed. For this reason, I do not support the suggestion that we could somehow suspend some of the critical powers and functions of the elected members of local authorities. We should focus on, and come down heavy upon, local authority members who are discriminatory in their conduct, language or approach to Traveller accommodation. I do not support any of that.

Good councillors of all parties and none have worked with the Traveller community and advanced Traveller accommodation. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has performed well in this area. The local authority has adopted the TAP as part of its housing strategy and has identified Traveller accommodation on its development plan. The problem is the delivery and execution, which rests with the executive - the crowd to which Professor Norris wants to give more powers. She has suggested suspending the powers of the elected members and giving powers to the executive. Has she asked questions of the executive? I see from the back of the report that a substantial number of them have made contributions, which I welcome. However, our focus must be on the executive because ultimately the policy of the council is adopted by its elected members. It has reserve functions, as we know. The executive needs to roll out the policy. The sale of that site in Dún Laoghaire was supported and initiated by the executive. We all know that. The facts speak for themselves.

The report recommends that we request further research and a review from the Office of the Planning Regulator, OPR, of Traveller accommodation policies and objectives. That is a very good proposal. We should do that because we need facts.

On Part 8 guidelines and so on, could the witnesses provide the committee with some exact detail of where they found elected members to have strayed, erred or gone off course? I want to home in on which local authorities we are talking about. Where were there particular difficulties? We know that some local authorities perform better than others. We need to address the issue of where councils have abused or misused their powers or in some way frustrated the roll-out of approved TAPs. We must get to the facts and cannot deal in generalisations. Those are a few of my concerns but we need to focus on the roll-out of plans that have been adopted. I have a number of them in mind. I lived next door to Traveller accommodation. I subsequently sold my house and I have bought a site next to another Traveller accommodation site where I intend to build a house. I have no difficulty with that and work very closely with them.

I have a few more issues. The ethnic identifier does not sit easy with me as I do not like when people talk of ethnic identifiers. Professor Norris mentioned that it might be a voluntary code. How is she engaging with the Traveller community on that? I raised this issue of an ethnic identifier with a Traveller yesterday and it did not sit comfortably with that individual. I now raise it with Professor Norris here today. I wanted to flag that.

Page 4 of Professor Norris's submission refers to councillors and the acquisition and disposal of land. Councillors do not approve the acquisitions of lands, which is one of the problems.

The executive can go ahead and acquire land without any consultation with the elected members. Issues only arise in respect of how the executive is going to fund such acquisitions. Councillors have no role or function in the acquisition of property, although they do, as was mentioned, have a role in the disposal of property. I will not support any move to take that power away from those elected members.

Last, the proposal for a national Traveller accommodation authority is a good one but it must have real teeth. Is it envisaged that such a body would have executive or non-executive powers? Deputy Ó Broin spoke on that but I ask the witnesses to address it. This is a really good body of work and a good start but we should leave the powers with the elected members. This has been a good exercise. Traveller communities across the country work well with local councils on the whole and in the main. The focus should be on why we not delivering on existing plans that are ten, 15 or 20 years old, plans which have been voted on and successfully approved. Why is that not happening?