A PLAN by Fingal County Council to build two halting sites in Howth, Co Dublin, has been postponed until October, after a vote of the council last night.
The two proposed sites, which would be the first to be situated in the area, were described as `totally unsuitable" in a motion supported by seven councillors, including the Cathaoirleach of the council, Ms Anne Devitt (FG).
At a heated meeting, the council voted for a further deferral to give time for examination of alternative sites.
A spokeswoman for the Howth
Travellers' Support Group said the vote represented a "complete stalling tactic" and dismissed arguments that the two sites, at the entrance to Howth Castle and Windgate Road, are unsuitable.
She said she did not believe any proposal for sites from local councillors would be brought forward.
The manager of Fingal County Council, in a report to the meeting, said the Windgate Road site was unsuitable because the Minister for the Environment had recently directed that a Special Amenity Area Order be prepared for the peninsula.
The council estimates that a Compulsory Purchase Order of the site near Howth Castle would cost £1 million.
One councillor, Ms Joan Maher (FG), said Howth had particular problems in accommodating travellers because of the size "of its electoral area".
Earlier in the meeting a councillor criticised the comments of Ms Devitt, made in a Sunday news paper and yesterday on RTE radio.
Cllr Tom Kelleher (Lab) said Ms Devitt's views were "regrettable and unhelpful". Ms Devitt said travellers would have to "adapt" to the ways of settled people and the best future for them was "in houses".
After last night's meeting, Ms Bernie Dwyer, of the Howth Travellers' Support Group, said there was close co-operation between some councillors and the group objecting to the sites, the Howth Peninsula Action Group.
The councillors who signed the motion against the sites mostly represented the Howth ward.
Ms Maher, who signed the motion, said the site proposed for the Deerpark entrance to Howth Castle was "daft" because travellers' horses might run on to local golf courses and tourism could be "ruined".
Cllr Michael J. Cosgrave TD said Howth was "not suitable for any halting sites" because of the area's "back to back" housing. He said a halting site near Howth Castle "would take from the town".
Cllr Joe Higgins TD (Socialist Party) said many of the people objecting to the sites had a "bigoted, offensive and quite disgraceful agenda".
Cllr David Healy (Green Party) said the failure to agree to the two sites was "like something from Drumcree or Harryville".
A spokeswoman from the Howth Peninsula Action Group, made up of local residents, said they had no "overall objection" to halting sites in Howth, but the two proposed were unsuitable and had been proposed with "very little consultation with people living locally".
She said that some councillors were "obsessed" with locating the sites on the peninsula.
Cllr Kelleher said Howth councillors had "ample time" already to come up with an alternative and Howth was not so "unique that it could not accommodate two halting sites".
Cllr Marian McGennis TD (FF) said that if the two sites did not go ahead the whole halting site programme for the north of Dublin "might unravel". She said other areas might not accommodate travellers if they realised Howth was to have no halting sites.