NEW legislation to force local authorities to house travellers has been approved by the Government.
Under it, local authorities will be given five years to provide accommodation for all travellers in their areas.
County managers will be empowered to take action themselves if the elected representatives fail to do so. The type of accommodation will range from houses to halting sites.
The views of the public must be sought when the five year programmes are being drawn up and travellers must be represented on new local accommodation committees.
Last week the Cabinet approved the heads of a Bill in which the new legislation will be enshrined, if passed by the Oireachtas.
The legislation would mean that where the elected members of a local authority failed to draw up or to implement a programme of accommodation, the county manager could then take the necessary steps to do it.
The ultimate sanction against a local authority which refuses to implement legislation is dissolution.
The Minister of State for Housing, Ms Liz McManus, said the provision of accommodation would become the law of the land.
It was her experience that local authorities were anxious to act in compliance with the law of the land and she was confident that the programme would be implemented.
In the year to last November 29th, 211 extra traveller families, were accommodated by local authorities, she said, making a total of 3,278 families in such accommodation. But that left 1,040 families still on the roadside.
This year £11 million is being provided for traveller accommodation, up from £6.5 million last year.
For the first time £1 million is being provided for improving and maintaining halting sites.
The proposed legislation will give travellers a say on accommodation at national and local level. A National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Group is to be established on a statutory basis under the proposed legislation. It has been in operation since last December on a non statutory basis.
The group includes representatives of traveller organisations, Government Departments and local authorities.
At a local level, the local authorities are to be required to set up accommodation committees on which travellers will be represented.
Ms McManus acknowledged that objections to traveller accommodation created problems for councillors.
"But I have found there's an understanding that somebody has to deal with this and take it in hand," she said.
She paid tribute to Mr Chris Flood, the Fianna Fail spokesman on travellers, who, she said, had been supportive of efforts to tackle the accommodation issue.