This article is from page 4 of the 2012-12-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE head of Clare County Council’s Special Policy Committee for housing has recommended that no further money be spent on repairing Traveller accommodation until “underlying situation” concerning these houses are resolved.
Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind) said that it was a recommendation that she “had not come to easily” but one that she felt was necessary given the cost of repairs to Traveller accommodation in 2012.
According to figures released at last Tuesday’s budget meeting of Clare County Council, repair payments for each house designated as Traveller accommodation was more than 10 times higher than the cost of the nonTraveller housing accommodation.
The average cost of repairs to the council’s 63 Traveller accomodation units was € 6,700 per house in 2012. This compares to a cost of just € 616 per house in the council’s non-Traveller stock over the same time period.
“I would recommend that no further money be made available to Traveller accomodation until the underlying situation can be resolved,” she said.
“The council cannot be expected to repair units only to have them damaged again and again while other people are waiting to get accommodation.”
This sentiment was echoed by Cllr Brian Meaney (GP), who is also a member of the Housing SPC who described the money being spent on repairing Traveller accomodation as a “matter of considerable concern”.
The council also heard that € 156,000 was spent in 2012 on security for the Beachpark Traveller Accommodation in Ennis.
A new CCTV facility is put in place on this site, and at a second Traveller accommodation site in the county, at a combined cost of around € 250,000.
Once this system of CCTV is up and running, the € 156,000 security contract for the Beachpark Estate will finish.
The council also incurred legal costs of € 118,000 in defending legal actions in relation to traveller accommodation in 2012.
Director of Service for housing, Bernadette Kinsella, said the costs had been awarded to the council in relation to some of these cases but that these costs had yet to be paid.
Cllr Tommy Brennan (Ind) also suggested that the Beachpark Estate be reallocated to the settled community as a result of damage which has been done to the property in recent months.
“We’ve seen this down through the years. It is more than 30 years ago that I said ‘they’ll never settle’. A problem like this will not be fixed by throwing money at it,” he said.