merrion street

Damien English, T.D., Minister of State with responsibility for Housing and Urban Renewal, today (Friday 2 June 2017) announced that a capital provision of €9 million will be made available for the delivery of Traveller-specific accommodation including Group Housing and Halting Sites for Traveller families, in 2017.

Following the announcement, Minister English commented that “an allocation of €9m which is a substantial increase of €3.5m on the 2016 allocation will ensure, that where schemes have commenced or new schemes are anticipated, funding will be made available to progress them. The Minister added that “the Government remains committed to meeting the accommodation needs of Travellers and we are honouring this commitment by continuing to provide considerable ring-fenced funding for Traveller-specific accommodation in 2017”.

Since 2007, almost €135m has been expended for the provision of new, and refurbished Traveller-specific accommodation. A provision of €9m in 2017 will support the progression of a range of Traveller-specific accommodation schemes. It cannot be determined at this stage how many Traveller-specific units will be delivered this year but in 2016 the outturn was 56 units.

The majority of available funding in 2017 will be allocated to schemes currently under construction and new schemes already approved by the Department to proceed to construction stage in 2017.

Minister English indicated that ‘extensive financial supports in place by the Department during 2017 will greatly contribute towards providing the Traveller community with culturally-appropriate accommodation that meets their needs in their preferred community setting’ and encouraged the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committees (LTACCs) to work collegially to progress individual local traveller accommodation programmes.

”In addition to the Capital funding provided, my Department will also continue to provide current funding to local authorities for specific accommodation-related supports, such as social worker salaries and management and maintenance of halting sites and group housing”, concluded the Minister.

€4.22 million is available for this purpose in 2017 and is paid to local authorities, as costs arise, throughout the course of the year.