If local authorities implemented Traveller accommodation plans and provided transient halting sites for them there would not be a difficulty with large encampments, the Minister of State for Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, said.
He told Fine Gael's social and community affairs spokesman, Mr Brian Hayes: "Where facilities are not provided, one cannot simply push people on. There is a responsibility on local authorities to provide transient sites to cater for Travellers and that has not yet been achieved to a desirable extent."
Mr Hayes had complained that, in his Dublin South-West constituency, a group of 120 Traveller caravans, whose members were mainly traders, moved into an area and caused £60,000 worth of damage by leaving 200 tonnes of rubbish on a public open space.
Mr Hayes said the Minister expected the local authorities to foot the bill for this and called for a change in the law of trespass. He said the handling of transient Traveller traders threatened the entire success of the Traveller accommodation programme, and "people will not accept the continual flouting of the law".
Replying, the Minister said: "This is not a new problem, although it may be new to Deputy Hayes or to Dublin. People throughout the country experience this problem in spring and summer every year . . . There is no easy solution to the problem of the provision of accommodation."
Labour's environment spokes man, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said the movement of large numbers of Travellers was "undermining the ability of local authorities to deal with Traveller accommodation".