Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending today.

I welcome the commissioning of the review by the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government into funding for Traveller-specific accommodation and the implementation of the Traveller accommodation programmes. It followed a very useful meeting that we had, and I thank the Minister for acting upon that. I understand that the housing agency report has been complete since July but it remains unpublished, and I rely on leaked information from TheIrish Times article published on 14 September which reported that Traveller accommodation targets have not been fully met at any point since they were made mandatory on local authorities 18 years ago. The article in TheIrish Times goes on to say that the leaked report concludes that anti-Traveller prejudice at local authority level may be hampering progress. If the intention of Government policy and the current legislation is that targets for Traveller accommodation would be met in full and that things would improve it is clearly failing. It is failing Traveller women, children and men. The report commissioned by the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government finds that more than €55 million provided for Traveller housing remains unspent since 2000, and just 68% of promised Traveller accommodation units have been provided. All the while, Travellers continue to live in shocking conditions, which I have seen myself at first hand.

There is unacceptable overcrowding on halting sites. Figures from the Department show that the number of Traveller families in need of accommodation since 2000 has more than doubled. In this new leaked report, local authorities agreed that overcrowding was an issue, leading to health and safety concerns. All stakeholder groups agreed that the future assessment of the needs for Traveller families was unfit for purpose. The second anniversary of those who died in the Carrickmines fire is coming up. More people will die in tragedies if these concerns are not addressed. People will continue to live shorter lives and suffer from housing related ill-health. I ask the Minister of State what will be done about all of that.

According to the 2016 census, the Traveller homelessness rate is 11 times higher than the general population. In the last five years the rate of Traveller homelessness has tripled.

The leaked report also finds that the private rented accommodation provisions are extremely difficult for Traveller families to access. Often discrimination and prejudice are getting in the way. People are rejected based on their names alone. It is a landlord's market, as the Minister of State knows, yet some local authorities use private rented accommodation as the alternative to staying on waiting list for Travellers seeking access to Traveller-specific accommodation. Figures show a rise from 162 families in 2002 to 2,222 in 2016. This has rendered increasing numbers of families homeless, further fuelling the crisis. Most Traveller-specific housing and social housing in general is provided by local authorities using the Part VIII planning process but the leaked report further found that the most significant obstacle to the delivery of Traveller accommodation is the planning process itself, particularly objections from settled residents and elected representatives, as the Minister of State well knows.

I note and welcome the Minister's decision to review the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998. However, there must also be a review of legislation that affects Travellers in order to alleviate the crisis. For example, the recent amendment to the Planning and Development (Housing) and Residential Tenancies Act 2016, which facilitated developments of more 100 accommodation units being dealt with directly by An Bord Pleanála without going through local planning processes, could also include Traveller accommodation. Legislation should be introduced immediately to implement this change and decisions to approve specific proposals for Traveller-specific accommodation should be taken away from the local political system and invested in An Bord Pleanála.

There is, at best, systemic apathy and, at worst, prejudice in terms of meeting the accommodation of Travellers. An indication of the apathy towards Travellers and their accommodation is reflected in the participation in this leaked review, as the Minister of State knows, where only 26 out of the 31 local authorities responded to the survey and only 22 submitted with sufficient detail across all questions. Significant gaps were found in local authority reporting and inadequate data-keeping. In some cases, there were no standardised recording, reporting and monitoring mechanisms. Indeed the deadline for reporting to the Housing Agency, which the Minister commissioned, was extended twice to facilitate poor responses. Will the Minister of State tell us when the Housing Agency review will be published and his plans to address the issue raised in the report and the major crisis for Travellers and their housing needs?