Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Yes, and that is what we have now on the Tuam Road halting site in Galway. They have a kind of permanent building that is beside the trailer.

My next question relates to Labre Park. Two places in this country that I have seen stick in my mind, and the only place you could compare them to is Soweto.

Many years ago, when I canvassed the Seanad, I went into Southill in Limerick to canvass a vote and I was absolutely appalled by the condition of it. Yet, that does not concern either of the authorities that are present. The other one was Labre Park. I visited Soweto once and it was the nearest thing I could describe to what I saw. That is the way it was.

I was very interested to hear the representatives say they are developing a plan with an approved housing body, AHB. My question is the human question: how long will it take before the people are rehoused in suitable accommodation? I always believe that good accommodation is incredibly important in order for people to have self-respect and also to deal with all sorts of other social issues. What are the steps that are to be followed? How long will it take? What timescale are we talking about? In the meantime, every night and every day people are living in Labre Park. It is very urgent that it and any other equivalent halting site around the country would be dealt with.

Again, if money is the issue, this committee can make recommendations upwards, as well as asking the representatives all the hard questions. While it is our job to ask the hard questions, it is also our job to use the information we get to try to move things along. If the blockages are at a central level, we as Members of the Oireachtas should shift them along.

I would like to compliment the representatives on their idea of the circular economy. Some work has been done in Galway with the Traveller movement. There is a company there that recycles mattresses. A huge amount of work can be done and I am glad to hear that there is an engagement with employment. I will not repeat the questions on the caravan loan scheme, because they are the same for both local authorities. We need a national approach to this.

The representatives gave the figure of 34 applications but said that ten were ineligible. Is that because of arrears? One thing that concerns me is the issue of arrears. In my experience, in some cases they are because the person stopped paying for no reason. In some cases, they are because of Covid and people were paying cash. In some cases, it seems to me that these are reassessments backwards. There might have been a change in household circumstances, such as where somebody moved in without permission. There might also have been a situation where their income may have increased because they got more welfare, etc. I always find it particularly hard regarding that last example, where there are arrears on an account because of welfare increases that were not reported, and the State knows about them. Many people say to me that everyone knew because it was announced that there was €12 more in the pension every week or €12 more in the jobseeker's allowance, etc. I always feel it is hard when people are refused on that ground, particularly if they have entered into an agreement and are sticking to it.

It is interesting to look at what the Revenue Commissioners do. With the Revenue Commissioners, if you have arrears, if you make a deal with them, and if you adhere to the deal to repay the arrears, they will issue a tax clearance certificate. They will not hold you up from doing your business, etc. We need to devise a system to deal with the issue of local authority tenants who are much more vulnerable than most bigger taxpayers who might run into arrears. As I said, in my experience, the issue can arise in a number of ways.

In relation to Galway - maybe I missed this information in the presentation - what is the situation in relation to Bishop’s Field Traveller halting site in lower Salthill? I understand that the lease is up on that. It was overcrowded anyway.

There were more people there than it was designed to accommodate. What is the plan to resolve this issue? If the matter is subject to a court procedure, I withdraw the question. I ask the question subject to there being no legal case.

Reference was made to an issue that is a massive problem in Galway, namely, that of Part X, SACs and SPAs. I do not believe anyone outside Galway has any idea how intrusive this is, not only in rural Connemara, where it is very intrusive and where 80% or 90% of the land is designated, creating all sorts of complications, but also in a fair part of the city. It was said that An Bord Pleanála turned down an application that included 12 Traveller units and social housing. A fair number of Travellers live in standard social housing accommodation. As the delegates and I know, the vast majority of my constituents who are Travellers live in standard housing. We need to follow up on how to deal with this issue and bring about change. How many units were involved in total? Were there 100? I heard somewhere that between the two types of accommodation and accounting for all the social housing, there were 100 units in total. What were An Bord Pleanála’s reasons? I did not read the planning permission refusals although I probably should have, but I heard that in one case the refusal was because there was no bus service or other public transport and that, in the other, it was because it was premature given the lack of infrastructural development. Could Ms Fahy confirm the reasons? There might be a case for us to go to the Minister to issue new guidelines that An Bord Pleanála would have to take into account when making decisions. If the reason for declining permission was related to public transport, I cannot see why An Bord Pleanála did not, in the worst-case scenario, say the accommodation could be provided before public transport was provided. Similarly, regarding the infrastructure-based refusal, I cannot see why planning permission was not given subject to putting infrastructure in place before allocating houses. The delegates might fill us in.

The area covered by Galway City Council is tiny. The council is not like Cork City Council in that it did not get extended. The city–county issue needs to be addressed. I would be interested in hearing the delegates’ thoughts on how this could be done.