Council backs Traveller plan

MEMBERS OF Clare County Council have adopted the county’s new Traveller accommodation plan after some heated debate.

At the council’s March meeting, Cllr Martin Conway (FG) said they “have a duty not to play to the gallery and do the right thing”.

A number of councillors said that members of the settled community were being discriminated against in the new Clare Traveller Accommodation Plan. The council intends to spend €8.8 million to construct three housing schemes as part of the plan.

Figures in the plan show that only four Traveller families out of a total of 130 in Co Clare have been able to provide housing for themselves from their own resources.

In the new plan, the council has identified the need to accommodate an additional 123 Traveller families in mainly three centres in the county, Ennis, Shannon and Ennistymon, in the next five years.

According to the plan for the period 2009-2013, it has established that 88 indigenous Traveller families are in need of permanent accommodation.

It also expects that an additional 35 new families will be formed during the draft plan period, who will also require accommodation.

Last year, the council’s record on the treatment of Travellers came under fire from UCD academic Bryan Fanning who accused local councillors of playing a central role in articulating anti-Traveller feeling and in opposing efforts to provide accommodation for Travellers.

Independent councillor Tommy Brennan said the plan states that Travellers are considered “local” after living in the county for three years, while it takes 10 years for a settled person to be considered “local” in order to secure planning permission for housing.

Cllr Brennan added: “I can’t support the plan that discriminates against our own community.”

Cllr Brennan was one of six councillors to vote against the council adopting the plan.

Cllr Peter Considine (FF) supported his colleague, stating that the three-year local rule “is discriminatory and is not acceptable”.

Cllr Considine added: “I am very reluctant to go along with the proposal.”

Cllr Considine said there is no certainty that work will commence on the Traveller accommodation given the financial straits the country is in.

Cllr Pat Hayes (FF) commented that the issue of illegal Traveller encampments has to be resolved once and for all, while Cllr Conway said that what had been said “was a gross misrepresentation” of what was contained in the plan.

Cllr Joe Arkins (FG) said that “in the absence of the plan, there is no prospect of getting any monies for providing accommodation”.

Councillors voted 17 to six in favour of adopting the Traveller accommodation plan.

Those to vote against were Cllr Brennan, Cllr Sonny Scanlan (FG), Cllr Considine, Cllr Bernard Hanrahan (FF), Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) and Cllr Hayes.