LOCAL AUTHORITIES PROVIDED just 44 units of Traveller accommodation in the three years to 2021, despite almost 3,000 Traveller families being in need of accommodation, the Irish Traveller Movement (ITM) will tell an Oireachtas committee today.

The organisation is appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Key Issues affecting the Travelling Community at 10.30am to discussion Traveller accommodation. 

Information received by the ITM through Parliamentary Questions responses show that just 44 units of Traveller accommodation were built by local authorities in the three years to 2021, despite a need of 2,871 Traveller families (in 2020) being in need of accommodation. 

The organisation outlines that of the 297 Traveller projects planned nationally, 207 are still at planning stage, with just 12 at final account stage. As 139 projects are using single stage, their status is unknown. 

It outlines that there are 12,183 Traveller families nationally, as of November 2022, which equates to around 51,168 to 65,569 people. 

Amy Ward, national accommodation policy officer for the ITM, will tell the Committee that a “secure, affordable and decent standard home is an essential and basic human need for all of us, but doesn’t seem to apply to Travellers, who have been largely excluded from housing crisis discourse”. 

Ward will say that the ITM has seen a marked increase of Travellers forced to live on unauthorised sites and experiencing ‘hidden homelessness’. 

She will tell the Committee that latest figures show the number of families sharing accommodation increased from 828 to 907 in one year, while families living in unauthorised sites rose from 487 to 654. 

“The magnitude of human cost cannot be overstated here. The importance of a home is most evident when people don’t have one; so too culturally appropriate provision of Traveller accommodation, and which lead to Travellers facing constant evictions, unable to treat chronic health conditions for example, children unable to attend school consistently, and mental health issues are exacerbated,” Ward will say. 

She will tell the Committee that “when a family is living by the side of the road, it is impossible to prioritise other concerns”. 

It is essential, Ward will say, that an oversight body, such as the National Traveller Accommodation Authority, is tasked with driving delivery.