Action group wants emergency accommodation for travellers

The Southside Traveller Action Group (STAG) has called for emergency serviced accommodation for 10 traveller families who left…

The Southside Traveller Action Group (STAG) has called for emergency serviced accommodation for 10 traveller families who left a county council site in Cabinteely, Co Dublin, yesterday, on foot of a court order granted to South Dublin County Council. Council officials had said that families who refused to go to another of its sites at Shankill, Co Dublin, would be evicted.

A spokeswoman for STAG said last night that places for only three families were available at Shankill. She could not confirm whether any of these had been taken up by the 10 families.

STAG believes that the "crisis" faced by the group of traveller families, who were first evicted from a site in Sandyford, Co Dublin, should be addressed urgently. In a statement, it said that there was an immediate need for permanent sites as well as transient sites to accommodate visiting families. It called for "proper management" at existing sites.

The statement said that almost all the families evicted from Sandyford were now scattered on roadside sites "without basic facilities like water, toilets and refuse collection".