The trespass law is being welcomed by those opposed to "urban nomadism," but others say it may actually help the Travellers' cause. Frank McNally reports
Most Travellers could benefit from the new legislation if it helps local authorities prioritise their accommodation needs rather than having to police the excesses of "trader Travellers" who have accommodation elsewhere, an official who has been tackling the problem in Dublin has said.
Mr Mick Fagan, head of the Traveller Accommodation unit in South Dublin County Council, added that if it prevented a minority of relatively well-off traders obscuring the needs of ordinary Travellers, "it might not be a bad thing".
Mr Fagan was at the forefront of council attempts to deal with a mass encampment of up to 100 caravans in Rathfarnham last year, during which hundreds of tonnes of rubbish and "three to four dozen cars" were dumped in and around the river Dodder.
He said it was "simply untrue" to suggest that the Travellers in such cases had nowhere to go.
Most of those camped at the Dodder were "well-resourced" and already had accommodation elsewhere in Ireland or in the UK.
"These traders are doing down the vast bulk of Travellers, and the biggest cost of what they do is not the clean-up.
"It's the negative impression of all Travellers which results, and which hardens the resistance of settled people to any attempts to provide proper accommodation."
Mr Fagan said it was the sheer scale of some camps in recent years that caused problems.
"If the legislation frees up me and my staff to do what we're supposed to be doing, rather than being a policing body for six months a year, it can't be a bad thing."
There was a less qualified welcome from the Dodder Residents' Association.
Its chairman, Mr Ted Murphy, regretted it had taken so long for a measure to protect the rights of communities like his, which he says was reluctant host to 500 Travellers, without sanitation, at the height of last year's incursion.
"People were intimidated. The entrance to Bushy Park was blocked and locals just didn't go there any more."
While the Dodder case drew most headlines, Mr Fagan says there have been a series of major encampments throughout Dublin over the past three to four years, of less interest to the media.
But in a high-profile example last July, South Dublin County Council was left with a bill of £60,000 after Travellers left hundreds of tonnes of rubbish on a football pitch in Knocklyon.
The new legislation is designed to target such incursions, according to the Minister for Justice.
But it will not affect encampments such as the one sited off Stocking Lane, Ratherfarnham, which includes a number of those who moved on from the Dodder.
According to Fine Gael's Ms Olivia Mitchell there are about 30 caravans now parked there, on a side road leading to two houses.