TRAVELLER FAMILIES are being forced to move from unauthorised sites and into private rented accommodation against their will, according to a new report.
The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM), which published the report yesterday, says failures by local authorities to keep to commitments in their Traveller accommodation plans are forcing families to give up on getting Traveller-specific accommodation and to move into private rented housing.
The report is based on figures provided by the Department of the Environment.
“Travellers are being forced to take settled accommodation when what they have been promised is Traveller-specific accommodation,” said an ITM spokesman. “Some families have been waiting over 10 years for accommodation.”
The Traveller Accommodation Act 1998 mandates all local authorities to provide Traveller-specific accommodation to all Travellers. None has done so, and the report finds “worrying trends . . . in favour of private rented” accommodation for Travellers.
There are 8,943 Traveller families in the State. The numbers in private rented accommodation increased by 1,200 per cent over the seven-year period from 2002 to 2009, which the ITM describes as “alarming”.
“The number of families living in local authority housing has steadily increased over the nine-year period from 2,110 to 3,300 – a rise of 56 per cent. The most alarming change in the last year is the increase in the number of families in private rented accommodation – 487 in the last 12 months and a greater than twelvefold increase in the seven-year period 2002 to 2009 . . .”
There are 422 families in unauthorised sites, a reduction of 159 per cent from 1093 in 2000.
The ITM is calling for a national Traveller Accommodation Agency to compel local authorities to deliver on their commitments.
CASE STUDY 'THE SITE IS FULL OF RATS AS BIG AS PUPPIES'
ANNE-MARIE McDONNELL (22) is looking forward to having her first baby in April.
"But I am worried, to be honest, about bringing a baby home to these conditions; to the night feeds in the freezing pitch dark and no bathroom. I suppose it's something we'll have to just manage."
The young woman has been living in an unauthorised halting site in Finglas, Dublin, for 12 years with her siblings, parents and grandparents.
Though included in Fingal County Council's Traveller accommodation plans since 2004, the families remain on a site with just two cold-water taps, four outside Port-a-Loos, electricity from a diesel generator and no rubbish collection.
"The electricity is just on for lights and televisions and only for a few hours each morning and in the evenings. So if we have to go to the toilet at night we have to go outside in the pitch dark," says Anne-Marie.
"It's too costly in diesel to have it on longer," explains her mother, Geraldine. "And it's too much of a draw to have fridges, toaster, microwaves – all the things you'd consider normal."
There were 14 families of the extended McDonnell family on the site until a few years ago.
"Some of my brothers and sisters moved into rented houses," says Geraldine.
"They were holding out so long for group housing but it was just too much with the children. They moved away not by choice, but the facilities just aren't here."
Though the site is paved and neatly kept, it is off Dunsink Lane which is almost impassable with rubbish piled almost a metre high into the middle of the road. Some of it is on fire as we approach, billowing smoke into the site.
Geraldine explains there are no washing facilities so the families wash at a nearby swimming pool, paying €3 for children and €6 for adults, three times a week. Clothes are washed at a launderette. The Port-a-Loos are emptied once a week by Fingal County Council.
"We have no fridges so we keep food in the press, so we can't buy in bulk and have to buy things like milk every day." They collect water in a 15-litre chrome can and "it lasts a day or two for cooking and brushing teeth".
She says the site is "full of rats as big as puppies. They come scratching at the door to get in."
The Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) is supporting the family's quest for group housing and site has been identified, at nearby Cappagh, by the council.
Colette Spears, accommodation officer with the ITM, said proposals for the scheme were now with the Department of the Environment. "It could be up to four years though before the scheme is completed if it goes ahead."
Geraldine describes the wait as "just so frustrating. We have been promised over and over we'd get something."
Asked whether they would be tempted to take private accommodation, both Geraldine and Anne-Marie shake their heads.
"It's not an option. We want to be with our families around us," says Geraldine.
"Even those who've moved out are back here every day with the kids. They feel they are in the wrong place.
"They don't see where they are as permanent. We never thought we'd still be fighting for housing this long."
Fingal County Council was unable to comment last night.
