Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked to be allowed to speak first because I will have to leave this meeting shortly for another equally important committee meeting. I welcome our guests. I missed some of the earlier presentations, unfortunately. I will be brief as I am sure other members have questions to ask and points to make. I will focus my first remarks on what Mr. Collins had to say. I empathise with him. I have a reasonable amount of experience of how local authorities deal with the Traveller community. I was previously mayor of Kerry and I was a councillor in Kerry for 22 years. There are two sides to every story. There have been very few occasions in Kerry where members of the Traveller community were guilty of antisocial behaviour, but members of the non-Traveller community are also guilty of antisocial behaviour. The town of Listowel, where I come from, has a good record and a long settled Traveller community. We work well together and everything is fine.

When I was mayor of Kerry, a number of people objected to Travellers being housed in a particular estate. They were vehement and there were many public meetings called. As Mr. Collins mentioned, we all have to be elected. To give credit where it is due, the officials of the council and I, as mayor, faced down those objections. I still have some of the letters of abuse I received, which would cause the hairs on your head to stand. The people who were allocated the houses are some of the most exemplary tenants Kerry County Council has ever had.

It was mentioned that some councils are not playing their part or taking up the budgets allocated to them.

Would Mr. Collins, the clerk to the committee or the Department be able to furnish me and the other members with statistics as to how much of the budget each county council took up, not just this year or last year but maybe even over a five-year or ten-year period, in order that we could make a league table out of the statistics? If councils are not playing their part, they must be outed.

We could talk about this all day long. There is loads more I would love to say to the other members and to Mr. Collins but I have to conclude. I will listen as long as I can.