Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee On Key Issues Affecting The Traveller Community

Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not wish to hog the meeting, but I have a supplementary question. The people who contact me who are in very bad housing situations are not all Travellers, but a disproportionate number in Galway city are. If they are homeless and one asked them what their hierarchy of choices is, they would ask for a home. It is very simple. They would say: "Get me a home. Do not procrastinate. Do not do any more studies or any more thinking. Get me a home." It is the majority situation. It shows how far behind we are that the question of choice is not even arising for them, because they will tell me to stop faffing about in the vast majority of cases. Some people are quite specific about what they are seeking. Some are specific that they want conventional housing, some want housing in Traveller-specific accommodation and some want halting site accommodation. I get all three, but it is fair to say that a large number who come to me, particularly the people who end up in homelessness, want a home, and they want it fast.

An issue that arises in the modern way we do our business is that we are very logical, but at times logic can give very strange answers. One of the problems I come across all the time is that Travellers, with just cause, will tell me that if they are offered a house in a certain area, there would be problems if they were moved to that area because they are either being taken away from where the family is or they are being put in with families with whom there have been issues in the past and there has been conflict and so forth. We are creating conflict because we just do it. A family is number one, ten, 12, 13, 14, 15 or further down the list. We say to them that they are next on the list and that is where they have to go, but we never take into account the human aspects of putting somebody in the wrong place and creating problems and tensions into the future that could be avoidable because of the close familial relationships that many Traveller families have. I get this all the time when Travellers come to me. The system does not seem to be able to deal with this in an official way. Some of the officials do their best and the social officers are trying very hard, but there has been no official recognition that it is not just a question of pulling people from the list, saying, "that is the next three-bedroom house and that is where it is", and totally ignoring societal reasons when making that decision. I am interested to hear comments from the witnesses on that issue as well.

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