Mr. Niall ? Donnabh?in:

I think the relationship with the Traveller community is good. It has progressed substantially in recent years across the full community and not only with the residents of Spring Lane. As mentioned in the briefing report to the committee, we meet Traveller families on a daily basis. Our Traveller liaison officer has dealt directly with a phenomenal number of engagements and our Traveller accommodation unit would deal with that on a much bigger level. As has been mentioned by many contributors, considering the number of Traveller families we have, engagements must be bigger and more involved in respect of the needs and wants of what is required.

We will always be a local authority. What we are doing with our Traveller accommodation units and Traveller liaison officers, as is the case for Mayo County Council, is to broker more of an engagement at an early stage. As we mentioned in our briefing report, we have been trying to give effect to things at an earlier stage and to break the cycle of this being just an accommodation piece. We are trying to work across the community in the long term and some of the things we have outlined have been helpful in that regard. Certainly from our perspective, relationships have improved. The communication piece can be strained and difficult because of the issues we are confronting but there is a commitment from Cork City Council to address these issues. As we show form with the likes of the Spring Line site, it gives confidence to the community that we are there with not just another plan but with a defined direction and outcome in mind. That helps.