The national Travellers' group, Pavee Point, has called for a Travellers' accommodation agency to be established in light of the serious lack of progress by local authorities in providing accommodation for Travellers.
It has also called for a moratorium on all evictions by State agencies until adequate accommodation is provided for the Traveller community.
The group was responding to the granting of an injunction to the Western Health Board at a sitting of the Circuit Court in Ballina on Friday, when Ina and John McDonagh were ordered by Judge Carroll Moran to remove their caravan from WHB lands at Knockcroughy, Castlebar. The couple were offered emergency accommodation in Straide, eight miles from Castlebar, by Mayo County Council. At an earlier sitting of the Circuit Court in Westport, Ms Ina McDonagh said the couple had been forced to park illegally because there was no room for their caravan in the Castlebar halting site, the only halting site in Mayo. The six-bay site was developed by Mayo Council in 1996 after a compulsory purchase order was served on the health board.
The McDonaghs have been on the council housing list for two years but have failed to find rented accommodation in Castlebar. Judge Moran ordered that the case be reviewed in September regarding the council's progress in finding accommodation for the couple.
Mr Gearoid O Riain, of Pavee Point, said there had been appallingly slow progress in accommodating Travellers. "There are dozens of families in similar circumstances to the McDonaghs, and instead of providing any services for them, Mayo County Council has a record of evicting them," he said.