Travellers in south Dublin are calling on Government to “intervene” to save their support organisation “in the same way they did with the Peter McVerry Trust”.
The Southside Traveller Action Group (Stag), which has supported more than 100 Traveller households in matters such as accommodation, education and training and healthcare since the 1980s, remains closed following an announcement by the board on February 17th.
The organisation became engulfed in a row last year involving the board, members of the mostly Traveller staff and the community amid accusations of unfair treatment of workers and financial mismanagement.
In light of concerns about how the organisation was being run, particularly in 2024 and last year, an independent finance and governance review was commissioned by Stag’s funders – the Department of Children, the HSE, the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education and Training Board and the Department of Social Protection.
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This began last October. However, the board’s February announcement, in which it told staff, who numbered more than 20, it had decided “to place the company into voluntary liquidation on the grounds it is insolvent” meant the review could not be finished.
More than two months on, no liquidator has been appointed and former staff have received neither wages owed nor information on redundancy payments.
In addition, they said, Traveller households across south county Dublin have lost critical supports.
In a statement, former staff said on Friday: “We demand and intervention similar to the support provided to the Peter McVerry Trust to save the essential services for our community and the jobs of Travellers, who we know face greater challenges finding employment due to discrimination.”
In November 2023 Government approved a €15 million bailout for the Peter McVerry Trust, a housing and homelessness charity, on condition it instituted significant governance and financial management reforms.
Stag was founded in 1984 by a nun and Traveller rights campaigner, the late Sr Colette Dwyer. Closure would almost certainly mean the loss of its premises on lands secured by Dwyer in 1982 on a 250-year lease.
One former worker, who did not wish to be named, said this month she had not been paid since January.
“Since we got the message about Stag closing we haven’t heard anything from any of them [on the board]. I have emailed and texted, and no response. They are just totally ignoring the messages,” she has said.
“People are very upset and really struggling now ... people are just living on prayers now to be honest.”
A spokesman at the Department of Children said senior officials there were keeping the situation at Stag “under close review” and assumed “all steps will be taken in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act”.
It was a matter for each of Stag’s funders to make alternative arrangements as they considered appropriate to ensure Traveller families continued to access services previously provided by Stag.
