My client is an eloquent intelligent Traveller lady with seven children. She has the gross misfortune of living on Spring Lane Halting Site with her extended family. She has seven young children one whom has special needs. She lives in a 40 year old caravan (which was provided to her by St. Vincent De Paul).
She and her children live in two bedrooms.
For 20 long years she has been complaining to the local authority about the conditions in which she is living. She has no facilities: no electricity, no running water, no hot water, nowhere to wash. She shares another family’s toilet facilities with 30 other adults and children. Despite living in these chaotic circumstances, her children are all attending school and incredibly are doing well. I have seen the holes in the floor of the caravan where the rats have knawed their way in. I have seen the windows that are covered in masking tape to try and prevent the rain getting in.
She moved on to her present location 20 years ago when she started a family of her own. She could no longer share her parent’s caravan who were living on a bay nearby. She told the local authority that she needed her own bay and ever since then she has been dealing with local representatives, TDs, councillors and anybody else who would listen to her in an attempt to get a proper home and facilities for herself and her young family.
What have the local authority done? Every year for the last 20 years, my client has believed that next year they would have to sort out this property because surely they would not allow young children to grow up in such dreadful circumstances. During those 20 years, the Council have done precisely nothing. Their argument is that she is a trespasser and even if she was assigned a halting site bay, which is effectively a piece concrete with a vandal proof shed where you wash and cook, they have no further responsibility. They argue that they do not have any obligation to provide living accommodation. Even the most basic rented apartment for a settled person must have hot and cold water, must have a separate room for use as a toilet with a washbasin and a fixed bath or shower with hot and cold water, must have fixed heating appliances in each room, must have facilities for cooking and access to a washing machine and a clothes dryer, must have fire blankets and smoke alarms and must have access to vermin proof and pest proof refuse storage facilities. Unless of course you are a Traveller with young children including special needs children. Then you are entitled to nothing.
Kevin Brophy
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