The chairman of Donegal County Council has said he would not be willing to provide halting sites for Travellers until they had given "assurances" about their behaviour.
Mr Peter Kennedy was responding to criticisms of the councillors who have turned down two proposals from the county manager for halting sites in two different locations over recent months.
The county manager has warned them that if they go on rejecting his proposals he will be obliged to overrule them to comply with the 1998 Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act. At present there is only one official halting site in the county.
Mr Kennedy told The Irish Times that he believed public opinion was very strong on the issue because of the way Travellers had behaved in the county in the past. The Fianna Fail councillor said council workers recently spent three days cleaning up a roadside site after one group of Travellers had left.
"I could not impose that kind of behaviour on any community and I have no problem saying that," he said.
Mr Kennedy said he accepted that some halting sites were well maintained by Travellers, such as one in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo. A Travelling family who had lived in the Cathedral car park in Letterkenny for more than 20 years also maintained the area around their caravan very well, he said.
"What needs to happen is for members of the Travelling community to sit down with the councillors and talk to us about what they want, and let us talk to them, but I would need assurances from them about how they intend to behave and run the site. They would need to show a bit of respect towards the people of the area they are coming into," he added.
Mr Kennedy said he was tired of "do-gooders" condemning the council and said his response to these people, including the Bishop of Elphin, Dr Christy Jones, was that they should agree to have halting sites beside their homes.
"I wouldn't put one beside other people because I wouldn't want one beside myself," he said.
The council chairman said he could not say if it would come to a situation where the county manager would overrule the members and build the halting sites.