A prominent Catholic bishop has said he is appalled at the amount of money spent on legal contests between residents and local authorities over the location of sites for Travellers.
Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe said money spent by local authorities defending such actions would be better used to provide and improve accommodation for Travellers.
"I am not denying the right of anybody to use our legal system," he said. "But I do feel that . . . very often legal disputes could be resolved by consultation and negotiation."
Bishop Walsh made his remarks at the publication yesterday of a report which found that many of the Traveller Accommodation Programmes drawn up by the State's 41 local authorities do not meet basic requirements or guidelines set by the Government.
The detailed research by an umbrella organisation, the Irish Traveller Movement, urges local authorities to stop evicting Travellers from unauthorised camps unless they can provide them with alternative sites.
Bishop Walsh gave an example of recent legal moves in Ennis, Co Clare, when local residents and representatives of a special school sought to block the local authority's plans for a temporary halting site for 13 Traveller families.
The objectors secured an injunction and the initial hearings cost about £120,000. Had the case gone to a High Court hearing and lasted 10 days it would have cost £1 million, he said.
Bishop Walsh said instead of pursuing the legal route, the parties attended talks with an independent chairperson and as a compromise the size of the site was scaled down to accommodate only eight families.
Bishop Walsh said "serious questions need to be asked about the amount of money that has been spent on legal fees in connection with the whole question of Traveller accommodation. I myself am appalled by it." He also urged local authorities to study their Traveller Accommodation Programmes, which run until 2004, having regard to recommendations and criticisms made in the Irish Traveller Movement's report.
The research by Ms Kathleen Fahy found that only a minority of the local authority programmes meet their statutory obligations.
"One is left with real concern about the political will to implement such programmes in a hostile environment of public and political resistance, opposition from settled communities, evictions, planning difficulties and racism," it says.
The local authority programmes, adopted last year, have identified a need for 3,600 accommodation units by 2004. They form part of the Government's strategy to accommodate all Travellers by 2004.
Authorities whose programmes were criticised in the report include the county councils in Cavan, Roscommon and Tipperary South Riding, while the report praised elements of the programmes adopted by councils in Donegal, Cavan, South Dublin and Wexford.
Criticism of the programmes included their failure to recognise nomadism and provide a range of accommodation including transient sites; a bias towards placing Travellers in local authority houses; and a lack of implementation details.
There are an estimated 25,000 Travellers in Ireland and 1,093 were living on unserviced sites or on roadsides last year, compared to 1,040 in 1996.