Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The legislation was introduced in good faith in 1998. In conjunction with the various Traveller representative bodies, I was asked to set up this expert group to bring about recommendations to change the system, once and for all. Proposals have been put in place and I am determined that when we get the report, we will act on it but we have to wait until we get it. The report will bring many stakeholders on board and we have had cross-party support for it from the housing committee. I hope that I, or whoever is in my job in the future, will implement the changes it recommends because we need to address the issue. There is only one way to do it and that is by going through the channels we have chosen. We need to bring everybody with us. I am not holding one particular sector responsible for this but it has not happened for a long time.

We have set up a task force specifically for Galway, under the chairmanship of Geraldine Tallon who has brought about great change and had great success working with the two local authorities in Cork. I am hoping this will also drive success in Galway so that we can get more of the money spent to improve the conditions of people living there and provide new accommodation.

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