The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, was yesterday urged to establish a national register of travelling families as a step towards providing sufficient halting sites around the State. The call came from Cork County Councillor Mr Michael Harrington (FG) who told yesterday's council meeting that a register would give local authorities some idea of how many halting sites they would need to cater for the travelling population.
"As it is, local authorities can be asked to provide halting sites for two families one night and the next night they're being asked to cater for 100 families," said Cllr Harrington, adding that travellers should have to reserve places in advance. Cllr Harrington was speaking at an emergency council debate following the arrival of 15 traveller caravans at a council-owned industrial estate on the outskirts of Ballincollig in mid-Cork.
Local Independent Councillor Mr Derry Canty said the encampment was beside a bakery and a meat processing plant. The site had no toilets or running water and there was a danger that the health authorities might be forced to close down the food operations. Assistant county manager Mr Paddy Deasy said that legally the council could only move the families if it was in a position to provide alternative accommodation for them either in halting sites or houses and it was not able to do so immediately.
Cork South Central Fianna Fail TD Mr Batt O'Keeffe said that if the travelling families had houses elsewhere, the council could take legal action to move them and the council agreed to investigate the matter. But traveller Ms Caroline McDonagh said the 12 family group had nowhere else to go. "We'd move in the morning if we got a halting site but we've nowhere else to go - as it is we don't have any toilets or running water here but if we stay by the main road, our children could be killed," she said.
Fellow traveller Ms Mary Rattigan said that the families had been living all their lives around Co Cork. They were willing to hire a field from a farmer and would leave the area in a tidy condition when they left, she said.