Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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The Traveller community faces many challenges and inequalities in employment, in education and in health in particular. Irish Travellers' level of access to healthcare and life expectancy estimates are shocking, with figures suggesting that Irish Travellers die 11 to 15 years earlier than members of the general population. The statistics relating to their mental health are strikingly worse than the equivalent figures for the general population. It is an unfortunate reality that members of the Traveller community face discrimination every day at many levels of society. Their experience of interactions with Government, local government and the community at large is often negative and can make them feel both excluded and marginalised. It is a reality of Irish society that the Traveller community is often treated in a way that would not be tolerated anywhere else.

In 2010, the United Nations declared that access to clean water and sanitation is a basic human right. This was already a right for children under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In 2016, the UN said that Ireland needed to make sure that sites where Traveller communities live have proper water and sanitation facilities, including toilets and showers. The UN and the WHO estimate that each person needs 20 l to 50 l a day for their basic needs. Those needs include water for drinking, cooking and cleaning.

A serious situation has been ongoing for more than a year at a Traveller site on the Ratoath Road in Finglas, which is in the Final County Council area. Up to 16 men, women and children are living on this site. Their ages range from two years to 78, and a woman living on the site is due to give birth shortly. The families have been living on this site for 40 years and, to date, they have no shower facilities or proper sanitation and, because the site has no direct access to an established water supply, they rely on people to carry buckets of water to each household. Imagine having to wash yourself, your children and your clothes using buckets of water. This is not something we should be seeing in the Ireland of the 21st century. Unfortunately, almost every individual at the site has tested positive for Covid. When coping with the virus, they had no access to proper sanitation or a normal water supply. Today, there are two people fighting cancer and another has a serious heart problem.

During the past year, the council has been delivering tanks of water to the site once or sometimes twice a week. This was supposed to be a temporary measure but, more than a year later, it is starting to look more like a permanent solution. I am thankful that, when I first raised these concerns, Fingal County Council responded but I have also been working to get it to put in place a more permanent water supply. I understand that certain issues and legal matters have been raised with regard to the ownership of the site but such concerns should be separated from the implementation of measures to provide basic human necessities. In an attempt to resolve this long-drawn-out issue, I have exhausted every avenue to find a solution for these families. This is why I ask the Minister of State and his Department to intervene as a matter of urgency with a view to resolving this issue and bringing to an end the terrible situation these families find themselves in.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ellis for raising this very important matter. The Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 provides that local authorities have statutory responsibility for the assessment of the accommodation needs of Travellers and the preparation, adoption and implementation of multi-annual Traveller accommodation programmes in their areas in order to meet the identified accommodation need. The role of my Department is to ensure that there are adequate structures and supports in place to assist the authorities in providing such accommodation, including a national framework of policy, legislation and funding.

Traveller-specific projects and developments are focused on group housing schemes and halting sites. This includes meeting Traveller-specific housing needs through a range of mechanisms, including the provision of mobiles and caravans, the provision and refurbishment of halting sites, the provision of refurbishment and extension of group housing and the return to use of vacant group housing. The 2022 budget provision is €18 million, an increase of €2.5 million on 2021. The full capital provision of €15.5 million was expended in 2021 providing Traveller-specific accommodation, delivering new group housing and refurbishing existing halting sites and group housing, including acquisitions.

As a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a range of measures are funded by the Traveller accommodation support unit of my Department under the terms set out in a 2020 circular which remains in place and which is being kept under review given that the Traveller community is still facing the challenges arising from the disease, as are we all. The range of measures introduced were designed to reduce the spread of Covid-19 and lessen the risk of infection, especially among vulnerable groups. Some members of the Traveller community, particularly those living on sites with limited facilities, may be particularly vulnerable and extra measures needed to be put in place to protect Travellers living in Traveller-specific accommodation in each local authority area.

My Department continues to support local authorities in delivery of the Traveller accommodation plans and ongoing Covid mitigation measures. My officials understand that the Fingal County Council is engaging families on the site in question and will continue to work with the families to meet their housing needs. Meeting the needs of all Traveller communities continues to be a priority for the local authorities and my Department, under my leadership.

In respect of this specific case, my officials have sought a response from Fingal County Council and are exploring options available to provide a solution in this instance. While there is no public water connection to this unofficial site, Fingal County Council is continuing to deliver drinking water to the unauthorised site regularly. Officials from Fingal County Council have been in ongoing engagement with families on this site. I have spoken with officials from the council and understand that they are happy to meet with Deputy Ellis at the site or, if he chooses, in their offices to discuss the matter and to brief him on the current position including the accommodation needs of the families in question, access to safe drinking water and ongoing legal and internal issues.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister of State. The Gavin family lives on the site in question. There are 16 in the family. This has been going on for over a year. I have met with everyone in Fingal County Council, including the CEO. They know the situation. They are getting themselves bogged down in a certain legal issue. At this stage, I honestly do not care about that legal issue. This is a matter of health, proper sanitation and the delivery of a basic need, water. This has to be sorted out. The Minister of State has said that special funds were made available during the Covid pandemic. This is a classic example of where such funds should go. They should go to this family to sort out this water issue and get them connected to the mains system. The problems in respect of the legal rights and wrongs of who is on the site can be worked out then. If anything happens to any of these people, they have to take it on the chin. I ask the Minister of State and his Department to step in and get a resolution. I do not want to go to meeting after meeting. I have done that already. I am sick of being told that people will come back to me. I want an answer now. I want this dealt with. It is a terrible shame that there are people sick with cancer on this site. A woman there is pregnant and about to have a child. She is going to have to carry water up to clean herself and so on. These people have no showers. It is all well and good to deliver tanks of water. I do not even know what that is costing. I shudder to think how much it has cost Fingal County Council over the last year or so. This happened in the middle of the Covid pandemic and a lot of people on this site got Covid. I raised this issue at the time and asked that the funds the Minister of State was talking about be used for this purpose, but that was not done. I want answers. I want the Minister of State to get on to the county council and demand action.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Ellis for his comments. I was very clear in my answer in that the responsibility for Traveller accommodation lies solely with the local authority. That is why, when the Deputy raised this issue today, I immediately got on to the local authority. It is now aware that this great concern has been raised in this Parliament and I will follow up with it.

I want to be very clear in terms of the work we have done in the past two years. For the first time in decades, each year for the past two years the Department has spent the budget. Second, we have increased funding for very vulnerable groups, including our Traveller community. We had 250 inspections nationwide throughout Covid to try to put remedial solutions and funding in place to keep the Traveller community, many of whom are very vulnerable, safe from the effects of Covid-19.

Issues such as the Carrickmines incident weigh very heavily on my shoulders in terms of this responsibility. That is why we need to work together to bring about solutions in cases like this. Especially when there are communities on sites that are unauthorised, it can be difficult to get solutions. We have to work together to do it and the will is there.

Issues such as trying to increase the funding for Traveller-specific bays has been granted and it is there now. The Traveller caravan loan scheme is approved. It is in place and being rolled out. Schemes such as these are so important in giving the Traveller community an alternative.

All I can say is that I will get back to the local authority. As I said, we want solutions. It is very easy to identify the issues, but we need concrete solutions. The Deputy spoke about a pregnant lady and people suffering from cancer. Those are the most vulnerable people in the community and they absolutely need to be front and centre in terms of supporting them. I assure the Deputy we will raise this again with the local authority.