Eileen Flynn (Independent)
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I thank the Deputy. Again, if there is any follow-up or if Ms Fanning feels she could elaborate on some of her answers, she should feel free to email the committee.

I will start with Dublin City Council. I am 34 years of age. I was born and reared in Labre Park. Since I was a child, we have been talking about the redevelopment of Labre Park. I worked along with Ballyfermot Travellers Action Project and Lorraine McMahon. This was before Mr. Smithers' time. The whole community worked really hard on the redevelopment.

It feels like we have been at Part 8 for more than a decade. Mr. Smithers answered the question very honestly and upfront for Deputy Ó Cuív about when it looks like the redevelopment will go ahead for Labre Park. What does he think the obstacles are going to be? Is it still Part 8? One of the challenges for redevelopment on the site are the trailers where the Berrys live on the left-hand side when you go into the site. We saw in the bad weather that a lot of the people living in trailers in Labre Park were without running water or any facilities.

The council is saying it will be in the next 18 months to two years. To me, the redevelopment of Labre Park will not be going ahead for at least another five to six years. That is from my experience and where the redevelopment is now. For those people living in those trailers, what can the council do in an emergency, as Mr. Smithers said earlier, to make people's lives a little bit easier on site?

A lot of good work has been done in Labre Park in the past 18 months since this committee went out to visit the site. Obviously, the work has begun since then as well. It is the view of many residents in Labre Park that it was pushed out. I live and breathe the site so I probably know about this more so than any other member on the committee.

We have an elderly man and woman who left No. 8 Labre Park. That elderly man and woman were desperate to get back on site and did not want the accommodation they were in. They agreed to swap or whatever to get back into their own home. They were living in that house their whole lives for more than 40 years and actually happen to be next door to me. As I said, that house has lain idle for the past two years.

I do not believe there is any will to refurbish that house and give it to a family. As for the residents on site, apparently the family had to be two years out of the house before they were allowed even to look to get back in. We are talking about an old man and woman of over 70 years of age. That is one issue.

Then there is the maintenance on sites. It is no disrespect to Mr. Smithers personally or to the women here this morning, but the maintenance on site is absolutely not fit for purpose. I know that. I used to live in one of the houses on site. I am in my family home a lot of the time. We are 23 years waiting on a shower. How is that possible? The windows in a lot of the houses in Labre Park have people freezing. My mother died at 48 years of age. She is nearly 24 years dead. In my opinion, that was due - again, I am not holding the council to account or anything - to living conditions. The living conditions that Travellers are expected to live in are absolutely appalling. One of the recommendations from the expert group around accommodation and from this committee is a stand-alone authority for Traveller housing. Do the officials think that is the solution? We are going into our sixth TAP and in each of the previous five the councils have not met their targets, unfortunately. I used to sit on the TAP on Dublin City Council and it is the only committee in the council that county councillors are not paid to take part in. That is absolutely ridiculous as well. If councillors are given a wage for other committees they should also be given a wage for being part of the Traveller committee.

Around the caravan loan schemes, the utility units are not fit for purpose. My uncle Paddy Berry - I have his permission to use his name - just got the unit refurbished. He and his wife said the unit came back as bad as it went. That is not future-proofing accommodation. That is not future-proofing houses. We see radiators on site. I speak about this constantly at this committee. It is brilliant for me to have Dublin City Council in so I can speak about the experience on site. We have had contractors in. The officials are right. I know of contractors who have been threatened on site, unfortunately. One time there was a ten-year-old child who said something to a contractor and he ended up in a mental health hospital. He was critically ill, really. I am being a little bit sarcastic because it was a ten-year-old child who said something to the repair worker on site. He has since left Dublin City Council, but those are the kinds of issues. When we talk about threats, we are talking in a lot of cases about a comment, say, by a young child walking up. I often see young children on site walking up to and speaking to and having a conversation with gardaí, social workers and whoever comes on site. It is the curiosity. I remember one time there was something said to a member of the council by a ten-year-old child and he was weeks off sick because of it.

I am sorry that happened to him. It happens on sites and it can happen anywhere. It was a very minor comment that was made. That is the kind of threat we are talking about, to be clear for the sake of the committee.

I know in Labre Park the dumping has been dealt with really well. I do not think the council wants the community to police themselves. I know that for years and years Labre Park had no choice but to police itself, and that was expected of us as a community.

How can we improve the standard of the repairs and make people's lives a little bit easier? This does not just apply to Labre Park but to the likes of St. Margaret's as well. I have been in St. Margaret's. Deputy Ó Cuív would say Labre Park is a bad site as in how it looks. However, my heart is broken when I go to St. Margaret's halting site. I sometimes go out there as my twin sister works with Exchange House in St. Margaret's halting site. I see the living conditions that people have in St. Margaret's. If you think Labre Park is bad, I would absolutely say that St. Margaret's is worse. To see children having to live in these conditions in Ireland in 2024 is absolutely appalling. There is so much more I believe local authorities can do, including in Galway and Cork. There is so much more our State and our Government can do.

As Deputy Buckley said, we want to help but we also want answers and, for us as a committee, that accountability. Accountability is so important. Three years ago a number of children who lived in a halting site in Dublin ended up in hospital with hepatitis. That should not happen in this country. Again, no accountability was taken for what happened. We are talking about sewerage, and people and the GP who looked after some of the kids believe the hepatitis came from dirty water from the pipes. That should not happen to children on sites, not in the Ireland of 2024.

I know the witnesses are doing their best as local authorities, but how can we all do better? When something is good, we can always do better and we must aim to do better. A few weeks ago during the bad weather people in Labre Park had no facilities. Again, this is Ireland in 2024.

If I think Labre Park is bad, it breaks my heart to going out to St. Margaret's. When it comes to social housing for the Traveller community and Traveller-specific accommodation we must stop expecting Travellers to police Travellers and say they are okay, they are in there and they will be fine. Intimidation and bullying goes on in sites, like in any other social area in Dublin, Galway or wherever it may be. We have to stop expecting Travellers to police themselves.

A question for Galway City Council is how we can do better. What can we do to support the witnesses? Would they be in favour of Travellers having stand-alone accommodation for Travellers to lead on themselves in that regard?