Gardaí in Longford are investigating an arson attack on a newly built dormer bungalow which the local authority had bought and proposed to use to accommodate a local Traveller family.
The property, at Melview on the outskirts of Longford, was recently bought by Longford County Council for about €215,000.
Gardaí were called to the five-bedroom unoccupied house on Monday morning after a canister containing petrol was thrown through a window. A back window had been smashed and the container of petrol thrown in. The canister failed to ignite and damage was confined to the kitchen.
Melview is a quiet residential area with a primary school, about a mile outside Longford on the road to Drumlish.
It is understood that a Traveller family was to move into the house. Some residents had expressed concern at the council's plans to house a Traveller family there. Local representatives had recently met local authority officials to discuss the move.
According to the 1996 census, Longford has the highest number of Travellers in the State, with 102 families living in the local authority area.
The main criteria for determining Longford as the number one area in need of funding from the Government's RAPID programme, announced three weeks ago, was based on rented local authority housing figures and educational statistics. With a population of 6,984, Longford town has a total of 2,175 people living in rented local authority housing, which makes up 31 per cent of the population.
This was the highest percentage figure of people living in rented local authority housing compared with 10 other towns with populations of between 4,000 and 10,000. It put Longford on top of the disadvantaged list.
Longford County Council was unavailable to comment on its plans for the house.