Andrew Carey
andrew@limerickpost.ie
AS CONCERN increases over the conditions of Traveller sites in the wake of the Carrickmines fire tragedy, Limerick City and County Council is to carry out a full review of the seven sites operating under its jurisdiction.
At Monday’s Metropolitan District meeting of the local authority, Fine Gael City East councillor Marian Hurley proposed that the Council Executive initiate a report on the current status of the halting sites in the Metropolitan District – outlining the size of each site, current living conditions and plans for each site for the next five years.
Responding to the motion, council management said that a Traveller Accommodation Programme for the full administrative area of Limerick City and County was adopted last year covering the period from 2014b to 2018.
“In the Metropolitan District there are seven halting sites and one Traveller specific group housing scheme. The halting sites consist of individual bays with serviced units within each bay and individual families are allocated a bay. The families sleep in mobile homes, chalets or caravans.
“There are 85 Traveller specific units of accommodation provided and 14 are currently vacant. In addition, eight families have been provided with emergency accommodation within or adjacent to the sites.
The Council Executive will prepare a report on the current status, size, living conditions and plans for each site for the next five years and advise the members accordingly.
Ciara McMahon who is chairperson of the Traveller Accommodation Committee said there was a lot of housing stock in the area and “it was about time that they looked into it properly because we do not want this tragedy to happen in Limerick”.
Other councillors claimed that the Clonlong Halting Site was “a tragedy waiting to happen”.
“Travellers don’t want to live in sites, they want to move off them”, Labour councillor Frankie Daly told the meeting while Sinn Fein’s Maurice Quinlivan said that the Long Pavement site was provided as a temporary solution but 20 years later, it was still there.
Cllr Shane Clifford said it was another aspect of Ireland’s housing crisis. “It is not just about the accommodation issues, it is about the development and social inclusion issues too”, he claimed.
The motion follows criticism of the council for failing to address issues raised in a report commissioned by the parish priest of Southill in 2011 in response to requests from mothers in the Clonlong Halting Site to help improve their living conditions after the severe winters of 2009 and 2010.
The report found that only two of the 34 children living in the halting site were free of regular respiratory or other infections, while the mobile homes the families rented from the local authority were inadequate for cold and damp winters.
Fr Pat Hogan said that nothing had changed despite the well-meaning talk. The only positive development was that one family with a very sick child had secured accommodation but, apart from that, there had been no response to the survey.
