Problems between travellers and the business community in a Co Dublin industrial estate in recent days have led to renewed calls for the provision of halting sites and housing in every county. Business people at the Sandyford Industrial Estate in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown area complained that as many as 50 caravans had parked in a green space near the main entrance. They claimed that travellers left litter and were creating unhygienic conditions behind many of the buildings, some of which accommodate food companies and hospital equipment suppliers.
All parties involved - the settled community, groups representing travellers and the local authority - agree that what is needed are properly-equipped halting sites, housing and special group housing.
While new legislation was announced early in September to provide such accommodation nationally, in the interim the problems continue. Residents and businesses object, but the travellers say there is nowhere for them to go.
In Sandyford, although travellers have now moved away from the main estate entrance, a trip around the park, which has more than 250 companies including international firms, reveals rubbish everywhere, with crows scavenging among bags. Some families with eight to 10 caravans are still parked on two sites.
Mr John Hewitson, secretary of the Sandyford Industrial Estate Association, said the caravans had left mess and litter and travellers had used the back of the buildings as a toilet.
"The businesses are concerned about the hygiene aspect and also that overseas visitors and clients will be put off bringing further business here. We need the international companies. The county council has to recognise that."
He said that in 1987 the council gave an undertaking that the estate would be free of travellers, and the businesses agreed to the construction of a halting site nearby. "We supported the halting site and it houses six families. It works and there are hardly any problems there at all."
The travellers also want proper halting sites. Father Dan O'Connell of the Parish of the Travelling People, which covers the Dublin diocese, said he welcomed the county council's initiatives to build 16 halting sites.
"The trouble is that in the interim families are moved on without being given anywhere to go. There is no point in pushing the problem on and on. It is a waste of resources and gets everybody's back up."
He said he appreciated that it was a problem for residents and businesses, but it also annoyed travellers.
"They don't want to keep being moved on. Their children are going to school and they don't want to move. They want proper sites with toilets and electricity.
"Also in the winter, if they are on a green space, it gets muddy and it is impossible to keep the children clean. The travellers don't want that. They want proper accommodation. For most travellers, the answer is permanent halting sites which accommodate five or six families."
A Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council spokesman said there was no permission for anybody to stay on the Sandyford estate. The council was granted an injunction against travellers there some years ago. "We have constantly gone after the problem to the extent of having someone jailed. We will take the appropriate action when we know who is there."
The council's real problem was that it did not have the places to put people. The spokesman said: "The solution is proper halting sites in every area of the country so that travellers don't have to be hounded from site to site. Halting sites, housing and special group housing are the three answers."