A TRAVELLER camp moved into the busy Raheen Industrial Estate this Tuesday-and Mayor Jim Long wants the Limerick County Council to act immediately.
When contacted by the Limerick Post, Mayor Long said: “This cannot be tolerated”.
About a dozen or so caravans, jeeps and cars parked up on a grassy verge inside the multi-million euro business park – home to Dell and Analog Devises, among other foreign direct investment companies.
Mayor Long fumed: “It’s an industrial estate – it’s about employment and attracting investment to Limerick. There is a constant flood of foreign business people who are visiting plants and conducting meetings there and this is not good for the area. It should not be tolerated”.
Local authorities have the power to move Traveller camps from areas other than spaces provided for Traveller accommodation.
He called on Limerick County Council to immediately serve the order on the camp in Raheen, adding: “A Section Four Order can be served by the council in the presence of the Gardaí. This gives the Travellers 24 hours to move on. We’ve used it four times in the city in recent years to great effect”.
According to Limerick’s first citizen, every council in the country has to provide halting sites for Travellers or long-term permanent sites.
“These sites eliminate the problem of on-street parking by caravans,” the Mayor said.
He added: “There is ample space provided for Travellers in Limerick but because Travellers are clans and nomads, they’re like the Celts of a hundred years ago – they don’t like to mix. Yes, they should be moved, most definitely”.
Councillor Long’s party colleague and Chairperson of Limerick County Council, Mary Harty, told the Limerick Post: “The County Council has a lot of experience of these types of situations. I’m sure the Council will deal with the matter sensitively and efficiently”.
