A GROUP of Travellers with 28 children was last night trying to find a place to stay in Galway after they had to vacate a temporary halting site.
The 11 families left a privately owned site at Carrowbrowne on the Headford Road, where they were illegally parked yesterday morning, on foot of a High Court order obtained by Galway City Council.
The convoy of caravans, which left the site after gardaí arrived to move them, made their way to the offices of the council on College Road. Serious traffic disruption was caused in the area but the convoy moved on in the afternoon to Salthill and last night the families were trying to find a place to stay.
Former mayor of Galway, Cllr Padraig Conneely, a member of the council’s Traveller consultative committee, has called on all parties to find a compromise.
“We need to find a compromise. It is quite obvious that the main parties involved in this, the families and the city council, will not get everything they want. All sides need to be reasonable and work out a solution because this is not acceptable,” he said.
The Galway Traveller Movement has appealed to the city council to find a place for the families to stay. Spokeswoman Margaret O’Riada said that the council had not reached the targets it had set for itself in Traveller accommodation policy.
“We must ask, from a moral issue, what are these families meant to do? They can’t stay in the city as they are subject to arrest, yet there is nowhere for them to go,” she said.
Mr Conneely said the families involved wanted to live on a site together but this would not be possible as none of the hardstands in the city accommodated more than half a dozen caravans.
“There are also other families waiting to be accommodated if planning permission comes through for sites and their needs must also be taken into account,” he said.
The families involved, some of whom had been in permanent housing, wanted to live a nomadic lifestyle.
“It is an intolerable position for all involved and we must find a reasoned solution. Nobody is above the law and all must work within it,” said Mr Conneely.