Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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488. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government whether Carlow County Council has applied for funding from the Traveller Accommodation Unit for Traveller-specific accommodation and a Traveller liaison officer; if so, the response from the Department to these specific requests; and if the funding was denied, the reason. [57218/25]

John Cummins (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 provides that the role of my Department is to ensure that there are adequate structures and supports in place to assist housing authorities in providing accommodation for Travellers, including a national framework of policy, legislation and funding.

The Act provides that housing 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 (TAPs) in their areas.

Traveller-specific accommodation is focused primarily on the provision of group housing schemes and halting sites, and also includes the acquisition of and refurbishment of properties and the provision of mobiles and caravans through the Caravan Loan Scheme.

My Department approved an application by Carlow County Council in 2025 for the refurbishment of a local authority owned property to be used as Traveller-specific accommodation to the value of €148,000. In addition, my Department informed the local authority that a pre-application relating to another property was not within the scope of the Traveller Accommodation capital budget.

My Department has no application on hand from Carlow County Council to fund a Traveller Liaison Officer post.