A Galway mother of four who recently gave birth to twin girls is appealing to the city council to provide basic bath and toilet facilities at the halting site where she lives with her family.
Ms Caroline Barrett said yesterday she is so concerned about her older children, four-year-old twins, Edward and Leonara, picking up an infection from the toilet in their squalid service unit, that she encourages them to use a nearby woods instead.
The facilities in the halting site at Ballybrit, where Ms Barrett lives with her husband Jimmy and their children in a small caravan, are in a deplorable state, she said.
The service unit which houses the bathroom is filthy and unheated, the bath itself has a hole in it and the stainless steel toilet bowl is loose.
Ms Barrett gave birth to her twin girls, Mary and Caroline, seven weeks ago and began haemorrhaging when she came home from hospital. Having no adequate washing and toilet facilities, she ended up back in hospital with an infection.
"I am not expecting a brand new site. All I want is a clean bath or shower, some paint on the walls and a bit of lino on the floor. I have to bath my kids in a basin in the caravan. They would love a proper bath."
The Barretts have been living on the site for two years and claim there has been no work done on the facilities there in the 18 years since it was opened.
Their older children are starting school this week.
Joint co-ordinator in primary health care for the Galway Traveller Support Group, Ms Karen McGuire, has expressed her concerns over the living conditions of the Barrett family to Galway City Council.
"It is shocking and unacceptable in this day and age for a family to be living in such conditions.
"Requests for the service unit to be maintained have not been acted upon. This situation must change whereby Travellers have access to culturally appropriate accommodation which has amenities and is fully serviced," she said.
Ms Ann Costello of GTSG said she believed that Galway City Council was not committed to providing halting sites and hoped that by allowing conditions to deteriorate Travellers would no longer be able to live on sites and would eventually forego their traditional way of life and join the queues for standard accommodation.
Director of Services for Housing with Galway City Council, Mr Ciarán Hayes, said he would be bringing plans to refurbish the halting site before the next meeting of the council members on September 13th.
He said the plans had already been approved by the Traveller Accommodation Committee and subject to the agreement of councillors, they would be moving ahead with the refurbishment works as fast as they could.
