Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the words of Greta Thunberg, this is just, "Blah, blah, blah". I represent Galway West and in Galway city alone, there is a need, so that people can go to bed and sleep in a comfortable caravan. There is a need for 24 caravans now. What are we getting? We are getting process after process. We are spending billions of euro in this State accommodating people, and rightly so, but when it comes to Travellers, we seem as a State to be small-minded and mean. Is the Minister of State saying that the State cannot afford a decent caravan to replace a 20-year-old caravan for people who have had them for 20 years and looked after them? Can we not afford that, particularly when they pay back the cost of the caravans in a weekly rent? I beg the Minister of State to go back to the Department and say, "Cut the petty-mindedness". There should be one for anybody who needs it now, on a needs basis. There should not another winter with people ringing me up in tears because of the conditions they are being asked to live in. The Ombudsman came out and saw one of these caravans but the lady concerned is not going to get one, even though he recommended it.

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