MEMBERS of a travelling family were looking forward to their first Christmas in a house yesterday after a local authority found them a home, despite criticism from a local Fianna Fail TD.
The O'Donoghue family with six children, ranging from five to 14, live in a 25-foot caravan near the village of Kilworth, Co Cork.
Cork County Council spent £62,000 on a six-bedroom, converted cottage for them about a mile from the village.
But Fianna Fail TD, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, said the council had paid an outrageous price for the house. He said travellers were jumping the housing queue and 375 people were on the Fermoy housing list. "There are many decent, honest people in the settled community who have failed to be housed," he said.