Inadequate housing being provided for Travellers
An article in the Village Magazine written by a member of the Irish Traveller Movement has drawn attention to the unsatisfactory housing being provided for the Traveller community in Ireland. This article was reproduced in the Irish Traveller Movement Weekly News Update.
A national accommodation strategy was developed in 1998 for implementation by 2000. This followed the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998 and the strategy was welcomed by Travellers as it recognised the cultural needs of travellers in housing. In 2000 there was a commitment to the provision of 3600 units of Traveller specific accommodation, however the number of new units built by 2011 is 849, including only 47 transient bays.
The writer of the article is Rose Marie Maughan, a Traveller Accommodation Officer for the Irish Traveller Movement, and as an expert in the field she expresses concern over the implementation of the Housing Strategy. She notes that plans are developed on the basis of consultation processes with Travellers that could be viewed as bad practice. She further notes that in her opinion Traveller specific accommodation seems to be being phased out. Halting sites are being closed down and no nomadic facilities are being provided. The only options provided are standard housing and private rented accommodation. She notes that Travellers want culturally specific accommodation but the accommodation being provided in not in line with these cultural needs. The writer states, “how can we continue to be Travellers within this sector?...I am calling on the Irish State to recognise us as the Irish ethnic minority group that we are”.
Ethnic recognition to combat racism
In other Traveller news, a recent article on Journal.ie considered how ethnic recognition for Travellers would help fight racism. The article, written by Damien Walshe of the Irish Traveller Movement, argued that Travellers in Ireland have faced racism and exclusion since the formation of the State. He noted individual acts of racism experienced by Travellers on a daily basis such as being refused access to pubs or not being able to book venues for family events such as weddings. However, he further notes that it is institutional racism that has the greatest impact on Travellers lives today. An example given of institutional racism is the Trespass legislation (Housing Act) of 2002 which criminalises nomadism.
The writer argues that the denial of the distinct ethnicity of the Traveller community trivialises the racism that Travellers face and the Head of Sociology in Trinity College Dublin is quoted as stating that, “the refusal to acknowledge Travellers as an ethnic group itself smacks of racism in viewing racism as emanating only from biological, racial difference – though racism, as we know, is never only about skin colour”.
Click here to read the article.
Comment by Irish Traveller Movement & Pavee Point on UK Traveller forced labour convictions
Meanwhile in the UK, an Irish Traveller couple have been jailed for 11 and four years for holding two homeless men in servitude and demanding forced labour. Two other family members were convicted for the same matter but sentencing has been put back. The Irish Traveller Movement released a statement stating that “the Irish Traveller Movement opposes violence and abuse in all forms and we support the work of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland in their aims to eradicate slavery and forced labour”. Pavee Point welcomes “the work done by police and prosecuting the case and...condemn(s) utterly the activities of those responsible”.
Click here to read an article on the case by the Irish Times.