Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is aware that two very important reports on the issue of Travellers and Traveller accommodation were published in the past four weeks. The first report was commissioned by the Housing Agency and the Minister of State's own Department was involved in it. It was conducted by independent researchers looking at the Traveller accommodation programmes since their inception. The second report was the Behaviour & Attitudes Traveller Community National Survey, commissioned by the national Traveller data steering group. This report provides a very useful insight into the views of those members of the Traveller community who were surveyed on a range of issues. I will address the housing related issues today.

Both reports make for pretty grim reading about the current state of accommodation provision for many people in the Traveller community. For example, the Housing Agency study shows that at the end of 2016, only 39% of the targets contained in the 2014-18 Traveller accommodation programmes across the State have been achieved. This is very below target, and is substantially below previous programmes. From the report and from our own experience, we know there are real problems in accessing land and securing Part VIII planning permission in local authorities. This is due to opposition from the political system, communities or others.

My own research shows the startling number of councils that were not drawing down any of their Traveller accommodation programme funding in 2015 and 2016. Other councils make up that shortfall by drawing down more than was originally allocated. There are counties that are simply refusing to draw down funding that is available to them for programmes they have actually agreed themselves. It is remarkable. I do not have more recent figures but as of July 2017 only 9% of Government funding allocated for Traveller accommodation this year has been drawn down - €800,000 of €9 million.

The Behaviour & Attitudes Traveller survey also produced some startling figures. One in three Travellers was forced to move in recent times. For those Travellers who are under 25 years of age, it is one in five people. This is a significant level of forced displacement. A total of 40% of people surveyed answered that they were no longer a Traveller in a nomadic way because they had, essentially, been stopped through legal or other mechanisms.

There is an increasing and unhappy reliance on the private rental sector, which is very insecure and for Travellers it presents additional forms of discrimination. The survey showed a clear desire for secure accommodation close to family networks and in a range of accommodation types to suit their needs.

I raise these points with the Minister of State today because, on the back of this information, we have a real opportunity - I know he shares this view - to come together as political parties. Over the next year or so, as a result of the work I am sure the Minister of State is about to outline in his initial response, we can start to design out of our housing, planning and local government system the structural barriers, and in some cases the structural discrimination, experienced by the Traveller community in accessing quality and culturally specific accommodation. If that is the Government's intention, it will have our full support and we will put aside any party political differences or any constituency interests to ensure we do the right thing by this important section of our community.

It is important not only to remove those barriers that clearly exist, and the studies I have outlined highlight this, but to deal also with some new challenges especially the population growth in the Traveller community, the changing nature of family formations and the need to give Travellers, as we try to do with for wider community, real choice in meeting their accommodation needs. For those Traveller families that want it, this means secure, appropriate and Traveller specific accommodation.

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