The number of Traveller families on the roadside, or on unauthorised sites, increased from 1,148 to 1,207 last year, despite the establishment of a national strategy for Traveller accommodation.
Of the 1,207 Traveller families on these sites, 885 were without basic services such as water, electricity and waste disposal.
Between 1998 and 1999, only 68 Traveller families were given new accommodation by, or with the help of, local authorities.
Of the 34 local authorities, 14 showed a reduction in the amount of accommodation they helped to provide in 1999, compared to the previous year. They were: Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown, Fingal, Galway county, Kildare, Limerick city, Mayo, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo and South Dublin.
This situation was widely criticised at yesterday's launch of the first report of the National Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee. Dr Patricia O'Hara, committee chairwoman, said it was unacceptable at any time to have more than 1,000 families without basic living conditions, but in this time of such affluence, it was unforgivable. "It reflects very badly on all of us," she said.
Ms Catherine Joyce, National Traveller Women's Forum, said very little progress had been made on the provision of permanent accommodation. Therefore, Travellers were forced to use these unofficial sites and this added to the divisions between Traveller and settled communities, she added.
Ms Joyce is a member of the Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee which was set up to advise the Minister of State for Housing on Traveller accommodation. At the launch of the committee's report, the Minister, Mr Robert Molloy, accepted that the rate of progress on Traveller accommodation had been slow in the past but he said the provisions in the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998 should change that. This Act requires local authorities to prepare five-year Traveller accommodation programmes and to set up Traveller accommodation consultative committees.
Ms Catherine Joyce urged the local authorities to implement their programmes urgently, rather than sticking to the five-year deadline.
According to the committee's report, there were 4,790 Traveller families in accommodation, or on the roadside, in the State in 1999.
Dublin city accounted for the greatest number of families - 408 families. Some 113 of these families were recorded as living on the roadside last year.
