This article is from page 23 of the 2012-03-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 23 JPG
THE committee responsible for Traveller accommodation is to recommend that Clare County Council not build any more Traveller accommodation units in the county.
The Chairman of the Council’s Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee (TAAC) confirmed yesterday that the recommendation would go before next month’s meeting of the local authority.
Green Party councillor Brian Meaney told a meeting of councillors in the Ennis West Electoral Area that the TAAC has proposed not to go ahead with the recommendations contained in the Traveller Accom- modation Plan.
Cllr James Breen (Ind) said the Council should not provide any more Traveller accommodation until all existing units are in use.
Responding to questions, Cllr Meaney said there are ongoing efforts to ensure “mandated attendance” by Travellers at meetings of the TAAC. The recommendation follows a report released last October that showed that the council spent € 20 million on Traveller accommodation over the past 10 years. The council has invested in 10 group housing schemes and one temporary site in the county that were put in place over three Traveller accommodation programmes since 2000.
The report showed that the council incurred high security costs on the Beechpark group scheme in Ennis, which was the subject of criminal damage and remains the subject of threat and intimidation since 2010.
The report states that a total of five units of accommodation had been destroyed by arson attack in the previous 22 months (Beechpark, Ashline, Ballymaley).
In a motion at yesterday’s meeting, Cllr Meaney called for members of the Traveller community living on an illegal encampment in Barefield to allow and elderly ill member of their community to take up housing allocated to her. The Barefield encampment is currently the subject of legal proceedings by Clare County Council.