Rockville residents deserved contact, says Kenny

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council should have contacted residents of a south Dublin housing estate before deciding to house a group of Travellers who survived a weekend fire near them.

Residents of Rockville Drive, Carrickmines, a cul-de-sac off Glenamuck Road where 10 people lost their lives in a fire on Saturday morning, mounted a blockade to stop diggers entering the council-owned site adjacent to their homes.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil on Wednesday the vast majority of communities were prepared to work with the local authorities and different agencies in their own interests.

“This is a very sensitive issue in that the funerals involved have not even taken place yet, although, to balance that, there has to be an explanation to any community of what a local authority intends to do as an emergency measure,’’ he added.

“I think that is only the normal courtesy that should apply in any circumstance and I hope the matter can be dealt with today in order to provide temporary accommodation for those remaining families at the Glenamuck temporary site.’’

Mr Kenny was replying to Sinn Féin TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn who said for too long there had been a wall of distrust between the settled and Traveller communities in the State. Mr Mac Lochlainn said the Glenamuck blockade was “a depressing spectacle’’.

Facilitate arrangement

He said he hoped the residents, who were meeting the council, could facilitate the emergency arrangement.

He urged Mr Kenny to recognise the ethnicity of the Traveller people.

“Can we finally address the injustice of the report of itinerancy from the 1960s that perceived this as a dirty problem that had to be swept under the carpet?’’ he asked.

Mr Kenny said Minister of State Aodhán Ó Ríordáin had done quite a deal of work on the issue and had brought a report on ethnicity to a Cabinet subcommittee.

While he did not think there was any constitutional impediment, Mr Ó Ríordáin had been asked to examine a number of issues arising from his presentation, he added.