Fianna Fail has accused Fine Gael of being "anti-traveller" following the publication today of Fine Gael’s new Traveller Bill.
The proposed legislation, which Fine Gael launched this afternoon, would give greater power to local authorities and easier legal redress to settled land owners where caravans are placed on their property.
Among its applications, the Bill would extend the general powers of local authorities to order the removal of temporary dwellings from a public place where tenants demonstrate antisocial behaviour. It would also make it an offence to ignore the request of either land owner or Garda to remove a temporary dwelling placed on private property.
Ms Mitchell said that because the travelling community was a minority group there had been a reluctance in the past to bring such changes about. But she said, if one looked at areas such as that surrounding the river Dodder in South Dublin, the scale of the problem was evident.
Ms Mitchell said the political will now existed to tackle the problem of "large numbers of trading travellers settling for prolonged periods on open spaces, football pitches and public parks effectively making such amenities unavailable to the public".
Deputy Alan Shatter, who assisted with drafting the Bill, said the aim of the legislation was not only to protect the rights of the settled land owners but to respect the rights of the travelling community.
He said that because of frustrations on the part of settled land owners, it had become "almost impossible" to convince the settled community of the necessity for more halting sites, which were essential for the travelling community.
"We want to redress the balance", he said.
Fianna Fail, however, has accused