Colette Kelleher (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Bernard Joyce, Ms Helen Grogan and Ms Brigid Casey to the Public Gallery, as well as the other guests, and I thank the Minister of State for his statement on this urgent matter.

Since the first Traveller accommodation programme in 2000, the five-year mandatory plan in each local authority to provide accommodation, there has been much evidence nationally, as the Minister of State mentioned, of low or no targets being set for developing Traveller-specific accommodation. Higher targets have been set for standard housing with an over-delivery of same. Sometimes standard housing is the only alternative. It is not what people want but it is the best and only thing on offer.

There is evidence of a lack of adequate planning for population growth which the Minister of State referred to in his statement. There is evidence delivery of poor to non-existent delivery of transient accommodation to facilitate nomadism. This is fundamental to people's sense of well-being and their sense of identity. I heard people speak powerfully about travelling to the Knock novena and that is a part of people's lives. People do not want to live in Knock but they like to go to the novena so the need to accommodate those kinds of important parts of people's lives should be taken onboard.

There is evidence of inaction on overcrowding and homelessness. Many sites are out of sight and out of mind. One has to really go about finding Spring Lane halting site in Cork because it is a long way from the road. The halting site in Doneraile is two miles from the road. We do not see the sites in Galway, like the site that Senator Boyhan mentioned.

Overcrowding was certainly a factor in the ten lives that were lost in the Carrickmines fire and it was great to hear the Minister of State's response on that in his speech. I hope we are doing enough to make sure that Carrickmines never happens again. Awareness of fire safety and fire risk is one thing but, if one is living in an overcrowded site like Spring Lane, which was designed for ten families and has more than 30 families living there, with the best awareness in the world, there is going to be a fire and more tragedy.

We need to be honest about it. Local, political and community opposition is the major barrier to advancing Traveller-specific accommodation. There is hypocrisy at play. We say one thing and act differently. Elected councillors in each local authority are represented on local Traveller accommodation consultative committees and charged with overseeing the research and assessment of need by local authority officials and developing the Traveller accommodation programmes. However, there are no sanctions on local authorities for not delivering, under-delivering or underspending budgets. There is huge need. There is overcrowding. It is hard to imagine that the conditions on sites pertain in a country as prosperous as Ireland and yet, as the Minister of State said, there is only 59% draw down of available funding. Of the 31 local authorities, 16 have no Traveller-specific accommodation.

According to the recent report on targets under the Rebuilding Ireland strategy, 107 homes were provided under the Traveller accommodation programme at a cost of €6.8 million in 2018. This falls far short of the €12 million available for the period and is consistent with the practice of underspending. Those 107 homes were not new homes. They comprised 57 refurbishments, 48 emergency caravans, one group house and one first-time buyers grant for the purchase of a caravan. That is not even new or additional accommodation. Underspending by local authorities has driven an underestimation of need which the Minister of State has accepted, which is, in itself, predicated on inadequate monitoring procedures which the Government’s own report in 2017 found to be the case in local authority areas. It is over 20 years since the Traveller Accommodation Act and the numbers of Traveller families in need of accommodation has more than doubled in the State. There are five times the number sharing, accounting for 4,460 people in overcrowded halting sites and in standard housing. Some 517 Travellers were recorded as homeless in the 2016 census. We are in the midst of a housing and homeless crisis and Travellers are 11 times more likely to be homeless than the general population.

There were 162 Traveller families renting in the private sector in 2002 and 2,387 families in 2017. Families looking for accommodation in the private sector are subject to discrimination as shown by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, IHREC, report. There is no provision for nomadic tradition, a criminal offence since the introduction of the Criminal Trespass Legislation 2002. As the Minister of State acknowledged, there is widespread under-delivery and there is cross-party agreement that there is underspending, underestimation of need and local and political opposition. That was captured by the Housing Agency's report entitled Review of Funding for Traveller-Specific Accommodation.

I commend the Minister of State's commencement of the review of the Traveller Accommodation Act and accept his bona fides. He is taking this seriously and wishes to make progress. I welcome the report of the expert group which I understand will be available in April.

I also welcome the Minister of State's admission that the State has failed to deliver homes for Travellers and that is something we have to address. We have to give absolute and proper consideration to an independent statutory body which would draw up, in consultation with local authorities, a national programme for provision of accommodation for Travellers. We cannot go on allowing local authorities to fail to deliver time and again. It is one thing for the local authorities not to do it but we are talking about people's lives, the lives of children and their prospects and life chances, while living in absolutely unacceptable conditions in a country as wealthy as Ireland.

I ask the Minister of State to be open to making an amendment to omit Part 8 of the Planning Act currently conditional to Traveller accommodation provision. It is heartening that the Minister of State referred to the European Committee of Social Rights and is looking at the report of that organisation and intends to address the findings against the State.

I mentioned the IHREC report which found that Travellers were 22 times more likely to be discriminated against by landlords in accessing private rented accommodation.

I have much more to say. People have mentioned other things already but I look forward to the Minister of State's response. There is cross-party support for the work he is doing but we want action. Every day we do not act affects families and children and life chances are missed. How can Travellers be healthy in the circumstances in which they find themselves? The difference in life expectancy between Traveller men and men in the general population is 15 years. The figure is 11 and a half years when comparing Traveller women to women in the general population. The mental health statistics are off the scale. How can a Traveller live a good life? How can a Traveller get to school? Travellers have to walk across a muddy field in Spring Lane. Children's shoes are wrecked and destroyed in getting to school and, if one does not get to school, one does not get a job. The rate of unemployment in the Traveller community is 80% in a country that is almost at full employment.

There is an urgency to this. I hope the Minister of State will be bold in his recommendations and that we see a significant change in how we address Traveller accommodation in this State. I thank the Minister of State for coming in.