The Labour Party spokeswoman on Public Service and the Citizen, Ms Niamh Bhreathnach, says she is "appalled" by an unauthorised Travellers halting site adjacent to the Booterstown bird sanctuary in south County Dublin.
The site was recently the subject of a planning application for an apartment development and, according to Ms Breathnach, the Travellers moved onto the site after the planning authorities refused permission for the development.
Ms Bhreathnach called for the protection of the site to be "copperfastened" in the development plans of the two local authorities responsible, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and Dublin Corporation. "Our bird sanctuary is under threat," she said.