Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There are 387 Traveller households affected by this issue. The amount of money transferred to the local authorities was €284,000 to be split between them. That is to cover not just the new three payments but also the original payment that families missed out on. The local authorities were told that they had to use the money and pay it directly to the Traveller families so it should not go into a Traveller accommodation fund.

I have met with the Senator before on this matter. In order to advance this I am happy to meet with her again. I am also happy to meet with National Traveller MABS again. I have been on a call with National Traveller MABS as well to discuss this. I think the Senator was seeking a meeting with the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I do not know what happened in that regard but I am happy to meet the Senator and the civil servant in charge of administering the scheme to see if there is any problem.

We have now transferred the money to the county councils so if a county council is not giving the money it means there is a problem with the county council. I reiterate that I am not fobbing the Senator off. I am happy to call a chief executive on her behalf and I am happy to deal with a particular case. Sometimes the best thing to do is to follow down one case, to find out what the answer is and that is part of the problem. I will help the Senator in any way I can. If the Senator makes an appointment with me I will sit down with her and National Traveller MABS. We will work with one of the families that did not receive the payment and try to find out why.