The Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, has said there should be a national policy governing Traveller accommodation in local authority areas.
Dr Walsh was commenting on the effect of "indigenous clauses" used by some councils, including Clare County Council, to exclude certain Traveller families from accommodation programmes because they fail to prove a sufficient connection with an area.
Clare's indigenous clause, which is currently subject to a High Court challenge, has been described by the Irish Traveller Movement as discriminatory and contrary to the Equal Status Act.
Ms Gráinne O'Toole, a national accommodation worker with the movement, said Clare and south Dublin county councils were at the top of the league table for issuing eviction notices to illegally camped Travellers. She said the indigenous clause effectively blocked people from their statutory right to apply for housing.
"Among some local authorities, they use it to say we do not have a duty of care to those families whereas the reality is you are entitled - and this is the Government position - to go to any county and apply for accommodation in that county.
"The crisis has heightened because a lot of areas where Travellers used to camp are bouldered over. They are forced to camp in high amenity areas." The council has been turning down some Traveller families for accommodation because they have not been "permanently resident in the county for at least three years", a stipulation now being challenged by two Travellers on constitutional grounds.
This week the funeral took place in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, of Ms Mary O'Donoghue, a Traveller whose request to live in Shannon, Co Clare, which she and her family regarded as home, had been denied because she fell outside the three-year rule.
Bishop Walsh said council officials had been working hard but the indigenous clause needed to be looked at again. A national policy was the only one which could be fair to everyone. He had known Ms O'Donoghue. He knew she spent a lot of her life in Clare "and her heart was very much in Clare".
"There are about six or eight families who have found themselves excluded by this clause even though they have spent quite a lot of their time in Clare and could argue reasonably that their natural home was in Clare."
The use of such clauses has been avoided by the Department of the Environment. In its 1998 memorandum to local authorities on assessment of housing needs, it says applicants should not be debarred for "failing to satisfy a requirement to have resided in a particular area for a specified period of time". A new assessment on housing and other accommodation needs is to be carried out on March 28th.
But there is resistance to any change among some locally elected members. Cllr Frank Neylon, an Independent Ennis town councillor, said at this week's meeting the town would be "destroyed" with Travellers coming from all over the country if the clause was broadened.
Meanwhile Pavee Point, the Travellers' support group, has called on the Taoiseach to discipline Ennis town councillor, Mr Michael Guilfoyle (FF), over remarks he made at the same meeting about a Traveller funeral which Pavee described as "inflammatory and racist". Mr Guilfoyle had said: "Travellers can't even bury their own without killing each other before and after. And we are supposed to be looking after these people."
The Department's memorandum advises local authorities to consider suitable arrangements so "those residing outside their functional area at the time of the assessment but who wish to be accommodated in their area are included in the assessment of needs".
The Department and the council said they could not comment on indigenous clauses because the matter was before a court. A Department spokesman said the format of this year's review of the Traveller Accommodation Act was being considered. It is halfway through its four-year term.
According to Irish Traveller Movement figures, just 111 of a recommended 2,200 Traveller-specific accommodation units have been provided. The Department spokesman said the Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal, Mr Molloy, would await the outcome of the review before making a decision on the progress being made.