Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee On Key Issues Affecting The Traveller Community

Traveller Accommodation: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John O'Connor:

I will take that question first. I wish to declare that I am on the board of the Land Development Agency. The issues Deputy McAuliffe raises probably have not been a major part of the discussion in the Land Development Agency, but in both the agency and in all developments we need to look at being inclusive of Traveller accommodation. There has been a tendency to be too segregated in the provision of Traveller accommodation. Both local authorities and the LDA need to look at every development from the point of view of whether we can include Traveller accommodation and not have it segregated. From my experience of Traveller accommodation, it has been too segregated, too isolated and not engaged, although, again, there have been some very positive examples of it being done well.