Paddy Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I welcome the Minister to the House. I welcome the report and thank him for putting in place the machinery to carry out this report because I have no doubt but that lives will be saved because of the inspections and the fire safety matters that will addressed by the local authorities.We cannot have another Carrickmines. I wish to take the opportunity to sympathise with the families from Carrickmines who suffered a great loss and tragedy.

I inspected a local halting site quite recently and have to say I was not at all impressed with what I saw from either a fire safety or an accommodation point of view. I have no doubt but that the local authority will address the fire safety issues by carrying out the inspections. The local authority has assured me it has carried out those inspections and will address the shortcomings around fire safety. Like the other Senators, I too would like to ask the Minister to address the accommodation issue. The accommodation I have seen in the halting site in my local constituency in Castlebar is inadequate and poor and needs to be addressed urgently. I am surprised to hear local authorities are sending back some of the funding that has been earmarked for Traveller accommodation over the years. I ask that the Minister address that issue. In my view, no local authority should be returning funding for Traveller accommodation to the Department.

In the halting site in Castlebar, I have seen the accommodation at first hand. In some areas, it was a fire trap. In some cases they had the walls painted with oil paint, which is highly inflammable. I hope the council in this case will address that issue. I acknowledge the local authority has to be invited in to do all the inspections but I hope all the inspections were carried out. I hope the Minister will address the many issues raised here about Traveller accommodation. From what I have seen, I believe it is the poorest accommodation of any group of people right around the country. While the €9 million is welcome, it is totally inadequate to address the Traveller accommodation issue in the short term.