A GROUP of Traveller families with 28 children among them believe they are being “victimised” for taking legal action over their preference for a nomadic lifestyle.
The 11 families are due to leave a temporary halting site in Galway on July 12th as a result of a High Court order issued last month, even though the site will remain open until November.
"We will have to take to the side of the main road where there will inevitably be complaints about us," Caroline Stokes, one of the family representatives, told The Irish Timesyesterday. "It's not what we want to do."
“We believe we are being punished because we don’t want to live in housing and because Galway city has decided it doesn’t want halting sites any more,” Ms Stokes added.
Galway City Council said the decision to move the families was on foot of a High Court order. It said it could not comment on its policy due to the pending judicial review.
Earlier this year Galway city councillors voted to remove the provision of halting sites from its Traveller accommodation plan for 2009-14. Independent councillor Donal Lyons described such sites as a “failed concept”.
The city manager and senior officials warned that the decision, which was supported by all but four of the 15 councillors, could be open to legal challenge. A judicial review has been granted and is pending later this year.
The Delaney, Stokes and Corcoran families believe they are being singled out by the local authority in advance of this review. Late last year, they were permitted to camp on private property on the Headford Road. On December 29th, the city council put an “abrupt ending” to this support, according to the Galway Traveller Movement.
The families were offered four bays in Tuam or a place on the list of standard housing in Galway. The families said their preference was for halting sites or hard stands. They said they had accepted housing on a temporary basis in the past, due to overcrowding in the five existing city halting sites.
After a suicide within one of the families, the group returned to the road last year – only to be told they had lost their place on the city council “list” for hard stand bays.
In March, the families moved into the temporary city council halting site at Carrowbrowne, which had been constructed for use while the permanent hard stand was refurbished and provided with mains electricity. The families were served with a committal order and asked to appear in Galway Circuit Court.
On the day of the court hearing, families could not leave as the site entrances had been blocked by boulders and rubble, said to have been deposited by local authority contractors. “It was indicative of the lack of respect for these people that they could be subjected to this sort of treatment,” Margaret Ó Riada of the Galway Traveller Movement said.
Ms Ó Riada added that the city council was failing to meet its own targets set in its own Traveller policy, which allows for the special circumstances of the community to be recognised. Such circumstances include the right to opt for the provision of halting sites.
“City councils can receive sanction from the Environmental Protection Agency for not meeting targets on water quality, but who is going to sanction them when it comes to recognising the cultural differences of the Travelling community?”