In a new initiative, the people of Limerick are being alerted to the accommodation requirements of the Traveller community in the city by postcard.
The card campaign is being targeted at 5,000 people on behalf of Citizen Traveller. It criticises the accommodation provisions for Travellers and calls on Limerick City Council to urgently provide proper accommodation and to follow the guidelines of the Department of the Environment in consultation with local Traveller organisations.
People receiving the postcard through the mail are encouraged to show their support by signing the postcard and returning it to Limerick City Council or to Citizen Traveller.
At present, 30 Traveller families are catered for in the city's permanent sites, but many of these need urgent upgrading. Six families live in temporary sites and some 18 families are on the roadside in the city area.
The Limerick Travellers' Development Group believes that the best results come when the group and the local authority consult and work together.
Ms Bridget Casey, speaking on behalf of the group, told the Limerick Post that properly designed accommodation was the key to building a better future for Travellers and the first step to building good neighbourhoods.
The chairman of the Travellers' Consultative Committee, Cllr Michael Hourigan, emphasised that the concerns of residents living close to halting sites also had to be taken into account.
Architect Mr Seamus Cooke said that future group housing schemes needed to be developed in consultation with Travellers and designed to meet their needs as well as the needs of the whole community.
Local authorities are obliged to implement the recommendations of the Task Force on the Travelling Community and at a forum in Limerick organised by Citizen Traveller it was emphasised that the recent introduction of the criminal trepass law meant that Traveller accommodation was now a matter of urgency.