Donegal County Council appears on target to meet a High Court order to provide temporary halting sites for Traveller families by the end of the month. The families are living on the roadside in Ballyshannon and Buncrana.
After initial protests by local residents, two halting sites are being built in Ballyshannon for four families and work is to start on two halting sites at Buncrana and Burnfoot next week.
Donegal County Council is due back in the High Court on May 25th, in a case taken by two families to force the council to meet its obligations under the Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act 1998.
In the High Court on March 1st, Mr Justice O Caoimh said he wanted the sites at Ballyshannon and Buncrana completed within three months. On the eve of that hearing, the Donegal county manger, Mr Michael McLoone, announced he was going to use emergency powers to provide temporary accommodation for 80 Traveller families - the first time the legislation was used to bypass councillors to do so.
Mr Justice O Caoimh told the council to implement the emergency plan immediately. When workmen moved on to the site at Carrickboy in Ballyshannon residents protested but local people this week said they accepted the halting site.
Ms Siobhan McLaughlin of the Donegal Travellers' Project praised Mr McLoone for his "brave decision". She said she believed the county manager had had little support from the settled population. After the emergency plan was announced some residents' groups mobilised to try to prevent sites being built in their areas.
Ms McLaughlin said Travellers had been subjected to "horrendous" comments in the local media and the opposition from settled people was "frightening".
There are 42 indigenous Traveller families living on unauthorised encampments in Co Donegal, without running water or toilets. The emergency plan provides for 13 temporary sites around the county to cater for these families and a further 40 places for transient families on four more sites. The council said all would be completed by the end of this year.
Ms McLaughlin said it was important to stress that these sites were temporary. Only minimum facilities are provided - running water, port-aloos and refuse collection.
"Travellers are worried they could be stuck in half-serviced sites for the rest of their lives," Ms McLaughlin said. The county manager has accepted that some sites would not be suitable for permanent sites.
Mr Hughie Friel, the Traveller representative on the council's accommodation committee, said the council must provide permanent accommodation.
Mr Gerry Gilroy of Donegal County Council said he believed the Ballyshannon and Buncrana sites would be finished this month. Given the level of objections, the county manager had given an undertaking to hold meetings between residents and officials in each area before work started. Once work began, a temporary site could be completed within weeks.
Meanwhile TravArt, an exhibition of art produced by the Donegal Travellers' Project, opened at the City Arts Centre in Dublin this week and will be showing at the Tallaght Community Arts Centre before touring to Cavan, Mayo and Belfast.
The works, all made from recycled materials, are in copper, slate, glass, bog oak and driftwood. The exhibition is the culmination of a three-year training scheme and it is hoped the project will prove commercially viable. Some of the Travellers have made use of traditional metalworking skills.
Quite a number of the 50 pieces have already been sold and prices range from £50 to £3,500. The Minister for Tourism, Dr McDaid, has promised to commission a piece for the new national stadium.