Report finds no Traveller progress in five years

There has been no "real improvement" in the day-to-day lives of Travellers over the past five years, according to a Government report published yesterday.

In its first progress report, the committee to monitor the recommendations of the task force on the Travelling community says that about a quarter of all Traveller families continue to live out their lives "in very poor conditions".

It says: "The words of the 1986 ESRI report - `The circumstances of the Irish Travelling people are intolerable. No decent or humane society once made aware of such circumstances could permit them to exist' - are still relevant in the year 2000."

The progress report comes from a 27-member committee tasked with monitoring progress on the implementation of the 341 recommendations made in the Task Force Report on the Travelling Community, which was published in 1995.

At yesterday's launch the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, described progress for Travellers as "disappointing". But he said he was confident that when the "major steps" taken by different Departments during the five years took effect, they would "begin to produce results" and that the life of Travellers would "progressively improve".

He said that improving the accommodation needs of Travellers was crucial "to improving the other aspects of Travellers' lives.

"Accommodation provision for Travellers must take into account their culture and their desire, in the case of many Travellers, for a nomadic lifestyle," he said.

The report, however, notes progress on accommodation provision was "very slow". Between 1998 and 1999 there was an increase of just 68 in the number of Traveller families being accommodated in local authority housing.

"It is particularly unsatisfactory that over the same period the numbers of families on the roadside or in other unauthorised sites rose from 1,148 to 1,207," it continues.

Mr David Joyce, housing officer with the Irish Traveller Movement, said the rising number of Traveller families living by the side of the road raised questions about "the ability of local authorities to deliver".

Welcoming the report, however, he said there had been important progress in legislation, institutions and resources to address Travellers' concerns.

The problem, according to Mr Martin Collins, assistant director of Pavee Point, was ensuring that legislation and resources made a difference to the lives of Travellers day to day. He said the report highlighted the need for "effective sanctions" against people and organisations that perpetuated discrimination against Travellers.

"Sanctions need to be applied to get outcomes and there need to be clear targets, clear timeframes and tangible results. Goodwill, good intentions and aspirations are not going to make progress for Travellers . . .

"The idea that the responses needed are being forced on local communities by directives from the top creates a negative atmosphere," the report says. Local authorities "should take ownership of the recommendations and implement them with confidence".