Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is to take legal action on Tuesday against 24 traveller families who are encamped at The Park, Cabinteely. A council spokesman said the action against the travellers might include an application for an injunction.
The council carried out a census yesterday which showed there are 24 families at The Park - 10 are local and 14 are "outsiders". There had been 38 families there on Wednesday.
Families who could not get into the site moved to Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, where they are illegally encamped at the back gates of the Powerscourt estate. There are now about 15 families in that area.
There has been strong local reaction to the travellers in both localities. Residents are pressurising Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Wicklow County Councils to move them on.
Meanwhile, according to a policy document from the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown council, nearly £500,000 was spent moving travellers, without any benefit to the travellers or the council. The council's Draft Policy for the Accommodation of the Travelling Community, released last April, says that £428,328 was spent in 1996, mainly on "moving travellers from one illegal site to another".
The document goes on to say: "This has resulted in no tangible benefit whatever, to the council or indeed the travelling community."
The document shows that the council currently provides 16 halting site bays, 25 group housing units and 23 standard housing units for travellers.
This leaves a shortfall of 54 halting-site bays in the area, based on a policy of 10 bays per electoral area. There are currently no halting site bays in Ballybrack, Blackrock, Clonskeagh or Dundrum.
There were 42 traveller families living on the roadside in the council's area at the end of last February, most of whom have declared a preference for halting-site accommodation.
Under present legislation the council can only move travellers from unauthorised sites if a vacancy exists on an official halting site less than five miles away. But the document notes that the council's halting sites are all full, so the only way travellers can be removed from unauthorised sites is through legal action.
Based on the number of traveller children, the council estimates that it will need to provide 40 halting-site bays over the next five years.
A council official said this will only be possible with the co-operation of residents of the areas in which halting sites are to be built.
The document cites a study carried out in Scotland last year in which it was found that well-designed, official halting sites co-existed in harmony with residential areas.
The Crosscare report found that, contrary to expectations, house prices were not affected by the proximity of halting sites.
The Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown document calls for similar studies here.
In Galway city, meanwhile, a convoy of traveller caravans which moved into local authority land in the west of the city is due to be moved on by this afternoon.
Galway Corporation, in association with the Garda, has put plans in place to remove the caravans to a transient halting site outside the city at Carrowbrowne. A total of six caravans moved into the area on Thursday.