The Taoiseach has warned the settled community not to veto local authority plans to accommodate travelling people. Speaking at a halting site in Clondalkin, West Dublin, Mr Ahern said that without proper accommodation, it is simply impossible for travellers to use schools, health care and other services to which they are absolutely entitled. He said the settled community has the right to be consulted about halting sites, but he warned that this did not confer upon them the right to veto development.
Mr Ahern highlighted what he called "the urgent need to end discrimination against travellers” and said that most travellers, like most settled people, were decent and law-abiding people who recognised that just as they had rights, they also had responsibilities. He said they would be the first to criticise any of their own who engaged in anti-social or unlawful activity.
Mr Ahern, was at Saint Olivers in Clondalkin for the launch of "Travellers: Citizens of Ireland", a book in which travellers explain their nomadic culture and the difficulties they often face in trying to win acceptance from the settled majority. Less than half of the families at St Olivers are housed: the majority live in caravans in an adjoining serviced halting site.
Flanked by some of the book's authors, including the travellers' parish priest who also published the book, Mr Ahern endorsed the book's appeal for dialogue between settled people and travellers as local councils begin implementing their five year plans to accommodate travellers.
