Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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8. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if he is satisfied with the implementation of the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998; if he has considered amending the legislation to include sanctions for non-compliance by local authorities with its provisions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35482/16]

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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32. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 264 of 25 October 2016, his views on the low drawdown level of funding by local authorities for Traveller accommodation; his further views on whether all of the funding will be drawn down by the end of the year; and the action he will take against local authorities who repeatedly fail to draw down the funding provided for this purpose. [35455/16]

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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In 2000, the Traveller accommodation budget was €70 million. In 2008 it was €40 million, and it was subsequently slashed to €4 million. It was increased slightly in the budget but it represents a cut of 90% on the most marginalised group in our society. Furthermore, there was an overall underspend of 36% in the Traveller accommodation budget allocated from 2008 to 2012. Are there any plans to address the huge problem of accommodation for the Traveller community?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 32 together.

The Deputy's question is mainly about getting the money spent but on the funding issue the funding has gone back up, and rightly so. In recent years approximately €5 million or €6 million has been spent on capital projects. Next year the figure will go up by 69%. The funding is increasing but ensuring that it is spent is another matter. We are reviewing the position in that regard.

A Programme for a Partnership Government commits to establishing a special working group to audit the current delivery and implementation of local authorities' Traveller accommodation plans and to consult with stakeholders on key areas of concern. This commitment has been underpinned in Rebuilding Ireland: Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, which provides for the commissioning by the Housing Agency of an expert, independent review of expenditure on, and delivery of, Traveller accommodation to underpin the work of the special working group.

The review, which will have regard to the targets contained in the local authority Traveller accommodation programmes, has already commenced and is due to be completed in quarter 2 of 2017. That will deal with all the issues raised at the conference earlier in November and the concerns about delivery and getting this money spent in the right areas and delivering the accommodation. It will provide factual information and thus provide a key platform for the special working group to progress its work effectively. The working group will be established by the statutorily appointed National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee, NTACC, immediately after completion of the review. We expect the working group to complete its work in an expedient manner and, as provided for in the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998, the national committee may then advise us on any appropriate measures for improving the provision and management of accommodation at local level.

The question relates to the drawdown of funding for 2016. My Department was in contact recently with the relevant local authorities in order to ensure that drawdown is maximised. The position will continue to be monitored closely by my Department over the coming weeks but we expect that this year's capital allocation will be drawn down. The same concern was raised this time last year that the money would not be spent, and it was spent. The Deputy is right that the money must be spent because we need to defend increases over the next couple of years.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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We know that local authorities probably will not spend all the money this year and next year. Is there any way of sanctioning them because what is happening is a form of racism? Representatives of the Traveller groups came before the justice committee two weeks in a row and the main point is still Traveller ethnicity. They said that a national policy is something that should be a right for Travellers and not something that has to be demanded and that failure to do the latter means that this Government has no obligation to fully recognise Travellers' distinct difference in terms of accommodation requirements. Travellers are a nomadic tribe and we are not providing the type of halting site accommodation that many of them seek. We brought in laws in 1993 and again in 2000 that were racist in nature because the only ones that suffered as a result of them were Travellers who could not go onto a piece of land with a caravan or set up on the side of the road. One of Travellers told us that they did not have a homelessness problem 15 years ago because they could go anywhere. They have a huge homelessness problem now because they cannot go where they want to go and the houses are not available for them either.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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To mid-October there was about a 30% drawdown from the local authorities. I accept the point the Minister is making about them having a couple of months left but last year a number of local authorities did not draw down any of their allocation. For example, Clare County Council and Cork County Council have not drawn down any of their allocations this year. What is the Department doing to ensure that the money is spent? I am not talking about the local authorities that have a good track record but, rather, about those that are not spending the money year on year.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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In the estates in my constituency that are primarily occupied by Traveller families, the big demand is for new housing. Is it not the case that these Traveller families, who often endure severe overcrowding - with younger families on the housing list - have a special priority? That is something the Minister is directly responsible for because he has not allocated to Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council the resources to provide the housing that is urgently required.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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We accept that the resources in this area were reduced, as they were in every other area. No area was singled out. Resources across the board were reduced. The aim of the Minister, the Department and myself is to try to drive that spend up. There are issues with regard to this money being spent in certain areas. Some local authorities excel in that regard and some do not. We are trying to get to the bottom of the reasons for that because it is not acceptable. Not all the reasons are to do with the local authority; it is a combination of reasons. We have put in place the expert panel to review this matter and I have no doubt we will then have action to try to drive the spend. In the context of concerns about whether the money going in the right direction, the Deputies should look at the trend. We increased the capital spend in 2015 by 22%. Next year it will be increased by 69%. We would not be doing that if we did not believe it was the right thing to do, nor would we be increasing the spend if we thought we could not spend it. In October last year the spend was approximately 27% or 30%, which is the same figure for this year. There will be a big push over the next few weeks - I know there are only seven or eight weeks left in the year - to get this money spent, and we intend to do that because Deputy Wallace is correct in stating that it should be spent.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Does Deputy Wallace have another supplementary question?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Some of the issues raised are matters for the Department of Justice and Equality, not for our Department.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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Wexford has the fifth highest Traveller population in the country. That population increased by 58.9% between 2003 and 2013 but there are no plans for any transit sites to 2018.

According to the plan, there are 128 Traveller households on the Wexford housing list but the lack of funding for new standard local authority accommodation will make it very unlikely that these houses will be delivered in the foreseeable future. There was supposed to be a review and I am wondering whether there is any update in respect of it.

I will admit, having listened to the Traveller representatives who came before the committee, that all of us in this House have been negligent in fighting for better conditions for Travellers. I wonder if the Government has an appetite for dealing with the issue of Traveller ethnicity because it would mean so much to them.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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We are looking at that. The Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, Deputy Stanton, is leading on that effort. I have had long conversations with the Minister of State in respect of it. The Government is looking at that issue.

In terms of the housing, it is important to understand the funding history here. My understanding is that the reason the funding for Traveller-specific accommodation decreased dramatically a number of years ago was that there was a policy decision that we would try to deal with Traveller housing needs within the broader social housing funding. In other words, instead of separating the needs of housing for Travellers and the needs for social housing, there was a merger of the two. Having learned some lessons, there is a need to significantly increase Traveller-specific funding relating to housing need and accommodation.

I was out in Carrickmines last week with the Connors family trying understand exactly what they are seeking from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in terms of solutions. I assure Deputy Wallace there is a serious effort within the Department to try to ensure increased budgets for Traveller-specific accommodation and that there is a political environment that can spend it locally.