Mayo County Council has announced that Ballina is to house more than half the Travelling population of Mayo by 2005. County manager Mr Des Mahon, in a statement to Ballina UDC, wrote that the town already had the highest indigenous Traveller community in the county and the decision had been taken on the basis of projections on current numbers and on how many Traveller families would want to move there in future years.
All county councils are required to have a complete traveller accommodation programme in place by 2005.
Urban councillors criticised the plan, not in relation to the housing of Travellers specifically, but at the concentration of Travellers in one area. Independent Ballina UDC councillor, Mr Ray Collins, said he could not understand how 53 houses were earmarked for Ballina and only three for Westport. "If this is supposed to be a policy of integration, that means equal distribution. I object to all the Travellers being housed in Ballina," he said.
More than 100 traveller families will be housed in Mayo by the year 2005.