Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an gCeann Comhairle agus leis na Teachtaí a rinne na hathruithe chun an t-ábhar seo a phlé níos luaithe.

I have been watching the broadcast of the Committee of Public Accounts meeting on NAMA. It is unfortunate that the Minister for Housing, Planning, Environment and Local Government is not present. While I was thinking of what to say to him, the figure of €190 million that may have been miscalculated in selling off the NAMA portfolio in the North kept ringing through my brain. Today's edition of The Irish Timesreported that since January, the 23 families who were evicted by armed gardaí on trucks from Woodlands Park halting site outside Dundalk have not been rehoused in full. Seven families currently live on the side of the road without access to toilet or water facilities or electricity and three of the families have children under the age of ten. I spoke to another family who parked their caravan beside their mother's place somewhere in County Cavan and they do a 100 km round trip every day to get the kids to school because the one constant in their lives is the school in Dundalk. They are hopeful that they will be rehoused and looked after in the town.

Last March, when funding was meant to have been released to the local authority, the families were promised that Woodlands Park would be refurbished and they would be rehoused by October. Kitty Holland of The Irish Timeswent on to the site yesterday where some men were looking at maps and papers. When she asked what was happening, they said the job should start next week and would be completed in 12 weeks, which brings us right up to the new year and the harshest part of the winter. The seven families living on the side of the road are indicative of what happens in respect of Traveller accommodation in this country. I chaired the local Traveller accommodation consultative committee, LTACC, on Dublin City Council for six years and I never experienced as much obfuscation, hesitation and deliberate twisting of figures, facts and promises in my role as a councillor until my final year on the council when the staffing changed and different officers were put in charge. This is the experience of Travellers in every local authority area and the figures bear it out. In 2008, €40 million was allocated to Traveller accommodation. This was reduced to €4 million by 2013 while last year, €4.3 million was allocated. The National Task Force on Traveller Accommodation in 1995 highlighted the need for 3,100 new Traveller units. Less than 10% of that number has been delivered two decades later. There is a now a need for 3,741 units. In my experience as a local authority representative, it was like pulling teeth to get money to refurbish houses that were badly needed for families and to get basic facilities such as bays, toilet facilities and water services installed in Labre Park, Ballyfermot.

I wanted to make a plea to the Minister, Deputy Coveney, on behalf of Rebecca Quinn from Dundalk to whom I have just spoken. She met him and other political party representatives in May and she was promised that the sun, moon and stars would be delivered. Since then, she has written to the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach, the Ministers for Health and Children and Youth Affairs and several times to Deputy Coveney and she has rung his office but she has been ignored by everybody.

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