One in two Traveller families in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown council area does not have its own water supply, a survey of the area's Traveller community has found.
Almost one in three of the 59 families surveyed by the South side Travellers Action Group (STAG) had no access to any water supply at all. Close to two-thirds did not have access to hot water and a similar figure had no washing facilities. A quarter of the Travelling families in the area have no access to a toilet.
The figures are included in a report on Traveller accommodation in the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown area published yesterday. Some 85 per cent of families surveyed said they were unhappy with their treatment by the council.
The report calls on the council to provide emergency facilities to roadside families while permanent accommodation is being identified and built. It also recommends the construction of permanent single halting sites, and the development of suitable transient site accommodation.
Launching the report yesterday, the Minister of State at the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Mr Chris Flood, said that while the report was welcome "the efforts of local authorities such as Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council in providing accommodation for Travellers has to be acknowledged".
He said that at the end of November 1998, over 3,500 Traveller families had been accommodated with local authority assistance. The survey involved interviews with Travelling families in group housing and permanent and temporary halting sites, as well as homeless families and families living by the roadside.
STAG said that because of their transience and the unwillingness of some to participate only 17 of the 45 roadside families in Dun Laoghaire were interviewed. As a result, the accommodation situation "is likely to be much worse than the findings indicate".
